
iih»_2l J /H 



Book 



I ?3t> 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 

(ADDRESSED TO THE PDBLI3HER.) 



From Noah Webster, LL.D., New Ha- 
ven, well known as author of an Ameri- 
can Dictionary of the English Language, 
and of many other valuable standard 
works. 

I have perused the sheets of the Lives 
of the Apostles, a work of Mr. D. F. Bacon, 
now in the press. In compliance with 
your request, I give my opinion that the 
work well deserves encouragement. The 
writer brings to the work no ordinary 
share of erudition, and appears to have 
the disposition and the means, to make a 
valuable selection of facts to illustrate the 
characters of the heroic men who propa- 
gated the doctrines of our holy religion. 
I sincerely wish you success in the publi- 
cation. 

From the Rev. James Murdock, D. D., 
Translator of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical 
History. 

I have perused, with much satisfaction, 
the first forty pages of your Lives of the 
Apostles, sent to me as a specimen of the 
work; and I do not hesitate to say, that 
these pages clearly indicate a production 
of no ordinary worth. They afford pro- 
mise of a work truly original, the result 
of much patient investigation, and the off- 
spring of a sound and discriminating mind. 
If the entire-volume shall be equal to this 
specimen, it will, in my opinion, be a valu- 
able addition to our list of standard works, 
and well deserve a place in every theolo- 
gical library. 
From the Rev. F. H. Neale, Pastor of 
the Baptist Church, New Haven. 
The Lives of the Apostles is a work of 
uncommon merit. It bears no marks of 
a mere money-making publication. The 
work is evidently the result of thorough 
and extensive research. It embodies a 
vast amount of correct and valuable in- 
formation. It is precisely such a work as 
we should expect from Mr. Bacon's well- 
known talents and attainments, and the 
peculiar facilities of his situation. It will 
always be regarded as a safe reference 
book, and be read with deep interest by 
the friends of Zion. 

From the Hon. David Daggett, New Ha- 
ven, late Chief-Justice of the Superior 
and Supreme Courts of the State of Con- 
necticut. 

I have examined, with some attention, 
a few specimen sheets of a work now in 
press, entitled the Lives of the Apostles, and 
their Fellow- Workers in the Gospel.- It 
appears to be well designed and well ex- 
ecuted. The research of Mr. D. F. Bacon, 



in this deeply interesting department of 
Christian knowledge, and the vigorous 
style employed, will ensure it success 
with " Divines and Students in Theology," 
and I think cannot fail to interest, to a 
high degree, the Christian public. 
From, Samuel J. Hitchcock, Esq. Instruc- 
tor in the Science and Practice of Law, 
Yale College. 

I have read the first thirty-six pages of 
a work entiled Lives of the Apostles, by D. 
F. Bacon. The plan of the work is ju- 
dicious. Thus far the execution is able ; 
and when finished, it will embody, in a 
popular form, much learned research, 
now inaccessible to ordinary readers. It 
will thus be a useful, engaging, and I hope, 
a successful publication. 
From J. L. Kingsley, LL. D., Prof, of the 
Latin Lang, and Lit., Yale College. 
In compliance with your request, I have 
read a few pages of the " Lives of the 
Apostles," now preparing for the press by 
Mr. D. F. Bacon ; and from the examina- 
tion of this specimen, and from the known 
talents and diligence of the compiler, I 
have no doubt that the work will be well 
executed, and deserving the patronage of 
the public. 

From Josiah W. Gibbs, A. M., Professor 
of Sacred Literature in Yale College, 
and Author of the Hebrew and English 
Lexicon. 

Having examined, at the request of the 
publisher, a few sheets of Mr. Bacon's 
" Lives of the Apostles," I cheerfully ex- 
press my confident belief, that the propos- 
ed work will prove highly useful ; par- 
ticularly, that it will contain much origi- 
nal investigation, — throw light on many 
points connected with the New Testament 
History, even for those who may differ 
from some of the conclusions of the au- 
thor, — and, as it differs much in its plan 
from the works now in general circula- 
tion, will be a valuable addition to the 
library of theologians, as well as of com- 
mon readers. 

From Rev. N. W. Taylor, D. D., Dwight 
Prof, of Didactic Theology, Yale College. 
With the above recommendation of 
Prof. Gibbs, I fully concur. 
From the Rev. Leonard Bacon, Pastor of 
the First Cong. Church in New Haven. 
I have had the opportunity of examin- 
ing some specimens of the " Lives of the 
Apostles," by Mr. D. F. Bacon ; and hav- 
ing been desired by the publisher to give 
my opinion respecting the work, I think 
I may say, without undue partiality 3 that 



» 






it will be characterized by thoroughness 
of historical investigation, and that it will 
exhibit and illustrate the facts in the his- 
tory of the Apostles, faithfully and clearly. 
From Rev. William Jackson, D. D., Rector 
of St. Stephen's Church, Neio York. 

As a work directing the mind to primi- 
tive times, and the first Fathers of the 
Christian Church, Mr. Bacon's " Lives 
of the Apostles" promises, on the face of it, 
much interest and information. Judging 
from the specimen before me, which, from 
numerous engagements, I entered upon 
with some reluctance, but read with great 
satisfaction, the volume will present a 
vast fund of information, relating to the 
earliest, and of course the most interest- 
ing period of the history of the church; 
which has unhappily hitherto been con- 
cealed from common readers. If the 
whole work shall correspond, in charac- 
ter and execution, with the beginning, it 
will form a valuable addition to most 
libraries. 
From Rev. Mark Tucker, Pastor of the 

Second Presbyterian Church, Troy, N. Y. 

In this age of book-making, when most 
of the publications issuing from the press 
are calculated to strengthen a morbid ap- 
petite for excitement, I rejoice to learn, 
that such a work is prepared as the "Lives 
of the Apostles," which is well adapted to 
lead the church to a study of the scriptures. 
From Rt. Rev. B. T. Onderdonk, D. D., Bi- 
shop of the Protestant Episcopal Church 

in the State of New York. 

Having given some attention to the 
perusal of " Lives of the Apostles" pub- 
lished by Mr. L. H. Young, of New 
Haven, I feel authorized to state my 
opinion, that as it is a very interesting, so 
it will also prove a useful volume to the 
Christian reader. 

From Rev. James Milnor, D. D., Rector of 
St. George's Church, New York. 

I have great pleasure in certifying the 
very high opinion which I entertain of 
the merits of Mr. Bacon's recent work, 
entitled the " Lives of the Apostles." It 
is evidently the result of great diligence 
and labor in the collection of materials, 
and of much ability in their arrangement 
and use: so that the author may justly 
claim the merit not only of the newest, 
but the most complete biography of the 
immediate friends of the Redeemer, and 
the first heralds of his cross, that has yet 
appeared. It is well entitled to a place in 
every religious library. 
From Rev. Manton Eastburn, D. D., Rec- 
tor of the Church of the Ascension, N. Y. 

I add my recommendation to those 
above given, of Mr. Bacon's " Lives of the 
Apostles of Jesus Christ." 
From Rev. Henry White, Pastor of the 

Allen street Presbyterian Church, N. Y. 

Having examined part of the " Lives 
of the Apostles," by Mr. D, F. Bacon, I feel 
justified in saying I think Mr. B. has ac- 



complished an important and difficult, un- 
dertaking with good success. The work, 
as far as I can judge, is characterized by 
faithfulness and ability, and I doubt not 
will greatly subserve the interests of prac- 
tical godliness. It is interesting in the 
highest degree, as well as instructive, to 
see whatever is left on record of those 
venerable men " who followed Christ 
and spoke as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost," brought together and so ar- 
ranged as to give us a correct view of 
their characters and the immediate effects 
of their most extraordinary and useful 
labors. Mr. B. has certainly succeeded 
beyond any of whose writings upon the 
subject I am informed, who have made 
the attempt before him, and I could wish 
to see professing Christians and others 
universally partaking of the fruits of his 
labors. I would further add, that I think 
the work well sustains the recommenda- 
tions generally that I have seen of it. 
From Rev. Chas. G. Somers, Pastor of the 

Baptist church, Nassau St., New York. 

Much of the early history of the church 
has too long been concealed from the 
community, in the ponderous folios of an- 
tiquity. The author of the " Lives of the 
Apostles" has employed much learning 
and laborious research, in rescuing from 
obscurity that which is so very important 
to every student of the inspired volume. 
The book before me commends itself to 
the attention of the intelligent reader, by 
deep historical investigation, and original 
and vigorous style ; and well deserves a 
place in the Christian library. 
Fromthe Rev. Archibald Maclav, Pastor. 

of the Baptist Church, Mulberry Street, 

New York. 

I have perused part of the " Lives of the 
Apostles," by Mr. D. F. Bacon. Judging 
from the specimen I have examined, 
I consider it a work of no ordinary merit, 
evincing practical investigation and criti- 
cal research. Executed in a style elegant 
and perspicuous, it cannot fail to meet the 
cordial approbation of all who duly ap- 
preciate the labors and sufferings of the 
chosen witnesses of the resurrection of 
Christ. 

From Rev. D. A. Shepard, Minister of the 
M. E. Church, Utica, N. Y. 

I do most cheerfully and unhesitatingly 
say, that I think the author has furnished 
the theologian and the Christian public 
with a volume worthy to be chosen out of 
a mass of publications by which a reading 
community is flooded. If my recommen- 
dation of the book should induce any in- 
dividuals to purchase and read, I should: 
hope thereby to aid them in some good 
degree in acquiring a better understand- 
ing of a branch of ecclesiastical history 
which has unhappily hitherto been conV 
cealed from common readers, and espe- 
cially cf the New Testament. 




M 

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m 
h 

-S. 3 



U 



THE LIVES 



OF THE 



APOSTLES OF JESUS CHRIST, 



DRAWN FROM THE 

WRITINGS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS, 

AND 

EMBRACING THE NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. 

ILLUSTRATED WITH AMPLE NOTES, 

HISTORICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL, AND EXEGETICAL; 

WITH FULL REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES, CONTAINING A LARGE AMOUNT OF VALUABLE MATTER, NOW 

FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH FROM VARIOUS ANCIENT AND MODERN LANGUAGES; 

BESIDES NUMEROUS ORIGINAL VIEWS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

THE WHOLE COMPRISING 

A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL 
INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT; 

BEING THE MOST COMPLETE WORK ON THIS SUBJECT EVER PUBLISHED, AND PRESENTING 
A MOST INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE SERIES OF 

NARRATIVES AND DESCRIPTIONS, 

NOT ONLY FOR THE LEARNED, BUT FOR COMMON READERS. 

WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. ,^ ■ ^f^ 
" They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." 

NEW HAVEN: 
PUBLISHEDBY YOUNG & UHLHORN, 

/ V 3 S" * 



3f/ 



JP 



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THE 



LIVES OF THE APOSTLES 



PLAN AND SCOPE OF THE WORK. 



THE NAME. 

The word apostle has been adopted into all the languages 
of Christendom, from the Greek, in which the earliest records of 
the Christian history are given to us. In that language, the cor- 
responding word is derived from a verb which means " send forth 
equipped," so that the primary meaning of the derivative is " one 
equipped and sent ;" and in all the uses of the word, this mean- 
ing is kept in view. Of its ordinary meanings, the most frequent 
was that of "a person employed at a distance to execute the com- 
mands, or exercise the authority, of the supreme power," in 
which sense it was appropriated as the title of an embassador, and 
of a naval commander ; and it is used to designate these offices in 
the classic Grecian writers. In reference to its general, and pro- 
bably not to any technical meaning, it was applied by Jesus Christ 
to those of his followers who were made the objects of his most 
careful instruction, and the inheritors of his power ; whom, thus 
equipped, he sent into all the world, to preach the gospel to every 
creature. The use of the term in connexion with this high and 
holy commission, did not give it such a character of peculiar sanc- 
tity or dignity, as to limit its application among Christians of the 
early ages, to the chosen ministers of Christ's own appointment ; 
but it is applied even in the writings of the New Testament, as well 
as by the Grecian and Latin Fathers, to other less eminent persons, 
who might be included under its primary meaning. It was also 
extended, in the peculiar sense in which Christ first applied it, 
2 



10 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

from the twelve, to other eminent and successful preachers of the 
gospel who were contemporary with them, and to some of their 
successors. 

Apostle. — The most distant theme to which this word can be certainly traced, in 
Greek, is the verb EteXXw, {Stella,) which enters into the composition of 'AroffrtAAw, 
(Apostello,) from which apostle is directly derived. In tracing the minute and dis- 
tant etymology of SreXXw, (Stello,) it is worth noticing, that the first elements of the 
word make the radical st, which is at once recognised, by Oriental scholars, as 
identical with the Sanscrit and Persian root st, which, in those and all the Indo- 
European languages, is remarkable for entering into the composition of a vast num- 
ber of words, whose primary idea is " fixity ,-" and this is, therefore, the ground- 
meaning of this prime root. In these languages, its combinations are very apparent ; 
as in Greek Lrd&j, arepeos, c-r^X;?, (ttvw, &.c. ; in Latin, sto, statuo, struo, &c; in German, 
stelien, sleeken, stellen, starr, statt, &c. ; and in English, a still more numerous class of 
words, such as stay, stand, stick, stop, stead, stiff, still, with a great many others, which 
a moment's consideration will suggest to any reader. This idea of "fixity," is 
prominent in the primary meaning of o-teXXw, as given by Passow, who, in his Greek 
lexicon, (almost the only one of the whole language which philosophically and justly 
deduces and arranges the meanings of words,) gives the German word stellen, as the 
original ground-meaning (grwidbedeutung) of the Greek word. This German verb, 
stellen, (evidently from the same stock as the Greek word to which it so strikingly 
corresponds,) is best expressed by the English verb "fix" which, in all its vagueness 
of meaning as commonly applied, maybe taken as the fair representative of the Greek 
ErAXw; and though a common reader may not, at once, easily conceive how a single 
word may be used in such a variety of senses, the fact really is manifest, that this 
English word bears a much greater variety of opposite meanings than the Greek. 
For we talk of "fixing" any movable thing, when we put it in a condition to move; 
a person, in vulgar phrase, is said to be "fixed," when he is dressed for company; 
and, in short, any thing is said to be "fixed," when it is prepared for its proper office, 
place, or function, without regard to the circumstances of motion or of real "fixity." 
i-<i&> (Stao) may very reasonably be considered the true Greek theme of (rreAXo, 
though the lexicons do not give it as such. At any rate, it seems better than the sug- 
gestion of TeXXw, ( Tello,) made by Lennep — which is also given by Damm. 

As to the primary meaning of SteXXw, there appears to be some difference of opin- 
ion among lexicographers. All the common lexicons give to the meaning " send," 
the first place, as the original sense from which all the others are formed, by different 
applications of the term. But a little examination into the history of the word, in 
its uses by the earlier Greeks, seems to give reason for a different arrangement of 
the meanings. 

In searching for the original force of a Greek word, the first reference must, of 
course, be to the father of Grecian song and story. In Homer, this word ffrtXXw, is 
found in such a variety of connexions, as to give the most desirable opportunities for 
reaching its primary meaning. Yet in none of these passages does it stand in such a 
relation to other words, as to require the meaning of " send." Only a single passage 
in all his works has ever been supposed to justify the translation of the word in this 
sense ; and even that is translated with equal force and justice, and far more in 
analogy with the usages of Homer, by the meaning of " equip," or "prepare," which 
is the idea expressed by it in all other passages where it is used by that author. 
(See Damm, sub voc.) This is the meaning which the learned Valckenaer gives as 
the true primary signification of this word. (In Lennep. Etymologic. Graec. sub 
voce, EreXXw.) This learned and acute lexicographical critic, is the first who rightly 
apprehended the true primary meaning of the word ; and in the passage abovemen- 
tioned, very clearly refutes the erroneous notions of H. Stephens, Scapula, and Len- 
nep, about the derivation and order of its significations. He says — " The peculiar 
force of the word is that of arraying, equipping, arranging ; (instruendi, ornandi, 
componendl ,-) and hence arose the secondary signification of 'sending the person 
prepared or equipped? For the word never means simply send, except improperly, 
and only in the usage of the Latin writers. The idea of simply sending, is expressed 
in Greek by npu, (pempo j) so that while nspireip vavv means i to send a ship,' arfr'Xetv 
vavv may mean ' to equip a ship,' or Ho send one already equipped and provided,' 
whether with arms, or with a convoy, or with seamen % or with merchandise. And 



PLAN AND SCOPE. 11 

hence the derivative vt6\os (stolos) has the meaning of " a fleet equipped with arms 
and men," precisely corresponding to the expression which Julius Caesar uses in the 
Latin,—" ornata classis." Valckenaer gives no instances from the classics, to support 
his view of the true signification of the verb, but a reference not only to Homer, but 
to Pindar, AEschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and Herodotus, has shown me, that 
in all passages where this word is used by these ancient authors, it occurs in such 
connexions as to abundantly justify the broad assertion of Valckenaer, that "this 
word never means simply to send." In Homer it occurs eight times. In Pindar 
twice, Olymp. vii. 61. va&v v\6ov UriWev ss, &c— " to array a fleet against the sea-girt 
land," &c. — Olymp. xiii. 69. tv kwv§ ara\iis — "appointed delegate." See Damm's 
"Lexicon Horn, et Pind.," under <rreXX&>, of which he gives "abordnen," "to fit 
out," as the first signification, a notion accordant with Vaickenaer's. Passow also 
refers to the first of these Pindaric passages, and translates the verb thereby "fit out," 
(ausrusten.) 

The brief allusion to these early authorities will be sufficient, without a prolonged 
investigation, to show that the meaning of " send" was not, historically, the first sig- 
nification. But a still more rational ground for this opinion is found in the natural 
order of transition in sense, which would be followed in the later applications of the 
word. It is perfectly easy to see how, from this primary meaning of "fix," or 
" equip" when applied to a person, in reference to an expedition or any distant ob- 
ject, would insensibly originate the meaning of " sTnd ;" since, in most cases, to equip 
or fix out an expedition or a messenger, is to commission and send one. In this way, 
all the secondary meanings flow naturally from this common theme, but if the order 
should be inverted in respect to any one of them, the beautiful harmony of derivation 
would be lost at once. There is no other of the meanings of o-rlAAco which can be 
thus taken as the natural source of all the rest, and shown to originate them in its 
various secondary applications. 

A distinction must here be clearly drawn between the ground-meaning, or radical 
idea conveyed by the word, and the true primitive signification of the word. The 
former is not in fact supposed to be a real definition of the word, but only a simple 
expression of its general force ; while the latter is the proper definition of the word 
as it actually occurs in various connexions, and is that which precedes the other 
meanings in use. Thus, "fix" is the ground-meaning or radical idea of oteAAw, but 
"equip" is considered the primitive signification, or the earliest and the original 
application of the word in the Greek writers. The discovery of these two distinct im- 
portant points in the lexicography of areWco is due to two different persons, the ground- 
meaning having been discovered by Schneider, though the priority of "equip" among 
the actual significations of the word as it occurs in the classics, had been long before 
shown by Valckenaer. But the learned Schneider, not rightly apprehending this dis- 
tinction between the ground-meaning and the first of the significations, has erro- 
neously imagined his view to be opposite to that of Valckenaer. Passow however, 
the editor, improver, and corrector of Schneider, has perceived the true harmony of 
these views, and has well combined them in his account of the word. (Handworter- 
buch der Griechischen Sprache. II. Band.) The first mention of the analogy be- 
tween the Teutonic " stellen" and this Greek word, is said by Everard Scheidius, 
(in Lennep. Etym. Graec. ed. Nagel, 1808, p. 689,) to be found in a passage of Ha- 
vercamp. (De pronunt. L. Gr. p. 87.) The first lexicographer who made use of this 
analogy, is Schneider. 

Those meanings which may be properly grouped together under the first class of 
the definitions of creAAw, along with "equip," of which they are only new applica- 
tions and extensions, are " fit out," " arrange," " prepare," " array," " dress," " adorn," 
&c. To this class of definitions may be. referred, as it seems to me, the meaning of 
the word in the verse of Homer already alluded to. The passage is in the Iliad, 
xii. 325, where Sarpedon is addressing Glaucus, and says, " If we could hope, my 
friend, after escaping this contest, to shun for ever old age and death, I would nei- 
ther myself fight among the foremost, nor prepare (or array) you for the glorious 
strife." {Ovre k£ c-e orfAAoj/ii naxw es wdiaveipav.) Or as Heyne more freely renders it, 
hortarer, "urge," or "incite." The in appropriateness of the meaning " send," given 
in this place by Clark, (mitterem,) and one of the scholiasts, (Tre^Trojjui,) consists in the 
fact, that the hero speaking was himself to accompany or rather lead his friend into 
the deadly struggle, and of course could not be properly said to send him, if he went 
with him or before him. It was the partial consideration of this circumstance, no 
doubt, which led the same scholiast to offer as an additional probable meaning, that 



12 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

of "prepare," " make ready," (Trapaoxsvd^o^t,) as though he had some misgiving about 
the propriety of his first translation. For a full account of these renderings, see 
Heyne in loc. and Stephens's Thes. sub voc. In the latter also, under the second para- 
graph of E-c'AAw, are given numerous other passages illustrating this usage, in pas- 
sive and middle as well as active forms, both from Homer and later writers. In 
Schneider and Passow, other useful references are given sub voc. ; and in Damm 
is found the best account of its uses in Homer and Pindar. 

In the applications of the word in this first meaning, the idea of equipment or 
preparation was always immediately followed by that of future action ; for the very 
notion of equipment or preparation implies some departure or undertaking imme- 
diately subsequent. In the transitive sense, when the subject of the verb is the in- 
strument of preparing another person for the distant purpose, there immediately 
arises the signification of "send," constituting the second branch of definition, which 
has been so unfortunately mistaken for the root, by all the common lexicographers. 
In the reflexive sense, when the subject prepares himself for the expected action, in 
the same manner originates, at once, the meaning " go," which is found, therefore, 
the prominent secondary sense of the middle voice, and also of the active, when, as 
is frequent in Greek verbs, that voice assumes a reflexive force. The origin of these 
two definitions, apparently so incongruous with the rest and with each other, is thus 
made consistent and clear; and the identity of origin here shown, justifies the 
arrangement of them both togetheT in this manner. The arrangement here given of 
the meanings of oreXXw, is also justified by the authority of the ancient scholiast on 
Euripides, (Hecub. 117.) He classifies the definitions of the word in this order. 
1. "Equip" or "Adorn" or " Dress." 2. " Send," &c. (See Barnes's Euripides, p. 5. 
folio, Cambridge, 1694.) This arrangement is also that which is adopted and ably 
supported by Valckenaer, Damm, and Passow, as above quoted: and these three great 
names, connected with the mass of evidence here presented, are sufficient to justify 
the boldness of opinions which may appear, not only novel, but unauthorized, to 
those who are able to refer only to the common lexicons, or to those of older date. 
Henry Stephens and his epitomizer, Scapula, followed by the majority of common 
lexicographers, Hedericus, Schrevelius, Schneider, and his translator Donnegan, 
with numerous other English lexicographers of the Greek language, are equally far 
from a true perception of the force of the word. 

The simple verb (xteXXco, among its numerous combinations with other words, is 
compounded with the preposition d™, (apo,) making the verb dTroartXXw, (apostello.) 
This preposition having the force of "away," "from," when united with a verb, 
generally adds to it the idea of motion off from some object. Thus dTroffrlXXw ac- 
quires by this addition the sense of " away," which however only gives precision 
and force to the meaning "send," which belongs to the simple verb. By prefixing 
this preposition, the verb is always confined to the definition "send," and the com- 
pound never bears any other of the definitions of oriXXw but this. This derivation may 
fce illustrated in English, by the popular uses of the word "fix" which has already 
been specified as a convenient expression of the ground-meaning of ireXXu. The word 
"jfec" is often used to express the idea of preparation and commission for a departure 
to something distant. Thus we say " he is fixed for the journey," — which implies that 
he is prepared for departure, and this preparation of course is equivalent to " being 
sent" by those who prepare him, or to "going" if he prepares himself. This is exactly 
the application of the simple Greek verb as above described ; and as with that, so in 
English, the word " fix" has, by itself an immense variety of meanings, — each signifi- 
cation being always determined by the connexion in which the verb is used. But the 
annexing of a single preposition to the English word limits it absolutely to the single 
meaning of "sending." Thus in vulgar usage, when a man is said to be " fixed off" 
it is always implied that he is sent, and the expression " fix off" is therefore equivalent 
to the verb " send." And, to conclude these convenient illustrations of Greek lexico- 
graphy from English vulgarisms; as cn-eXXw means "fix "so utooteXXw means " fix off" 
or " send." Yet, as Valckenaer justly remarks in the passage above quoted, respect- 
ing o-reXXw, that it "nvver means send merely, as nifma does, — so the derivative d™- 
oteXXo) never means simply " send," but is always inseparably connected with the idea 
of "preparing" "fitting ," or " equipping" the person sent, for the duties to which he 
is commissioned. This is distinctly expressed also in the just definition of this verb 
given by the great Suicer in his Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus, (sub voce d-rroaToXos.) He 
says, " The verb dnoaTeWco signifies ' to send with some kind of power and authority,' " — 
thus connecting, inseparably, the notion of equipment and preparation. The simple 



PLAN AND SCOPE. 13 

verb without the prefix expresses the idea of " send" only in certain peculiar relations 
with other words ; while the compound, limited and aided by the preposition, always 
implies action directed "away from" the agent to a distance, and thus conveys the 
idea of "send," by a sort of implication. From this compound verb thus defined, is 
directly formed the substantive which is the true object and end of this protracted 
research. 

'AITOSTOAOE, {Apostolos,) is derived from the preceding verb by changing the 
penult vowel E into O, and displacing the termination of the verb by that of the noun. 
The change of the vowel is described in the grammars as caused by its being derived 
from the perfect middle, which has this peculiarity in its penult. The noun preserves 
in all its uses the uniform sense of the verb from which it is derived, and in every 
instance maintains the primary idea of "a person or thing equipped and sent." It 
was often used adjectively with a termination varying according to the gender of the 
substantive to which it referred. In this way it seems to have been used by Herodo- 
tus, who gives it the termination corresponding to the neuter, when the substantive to 
which it refers is in that gender. (See Porti Dictionarium lonicumGraeco-Latinum.) 
Herodotus is the earliest author in whom I am able to discover the word, for Homer 
never uses the word at all, nor does any author, as far as I know, previous to the 
father of history. Though always preserving the primary idea of the word, he 
varies its meaning considerably, according as he applies it to a person or a thing. 
With the neuter termination, air6<rro\ov, (apostolon,) referring to the substantive nXoiov, 
(ploion : ) it means a "vessel equipped and sent." In Plato, (Epist. 7,) it occurs in this 
connexion with the substantive ttXoXov expressed, which in Herodotus is only implied. 
For an exposition of this use of the term, see H. Stephens's Thesaurus, (sub voc. 
oTrdo-roXo?.) With the masculine termination, Herodotus, applying it to persons, uses 
it first in the sense of "embassador," or "herald," in Clio, 21, where relating that 
Halyattes, king of Lydia, sent a herald (*>7p£, kertix) to treat for a truce with the 
Milesians, he mentions his arrival under this synonymous term. " So the apostolos 
(airoaroXos) came to Miletus." ('0 ^ev Sri uttoctoXos eg ty)v M.iMtov r]v.) In Terpsichore, 
38, he uses the same term. " Aristagoras the Milesian went to Lacedaemon by ship, 
as embassador (or delegate) from the assembly of Ionic tyrants," (AiroaroXos k'yivero.) 
These two passages are the earliest Greek in which I can find this word, and it is 
worth noticing here, that the word in the masculine form was distinctly applied to 
persons, in the sense given as the primary one in the text of this book. But, still 
maintaining in its uses the general idea of "equipped and sent," it was not confined, 
in the ever-changing usage of the flexible Greeks, to individual persons alone. In 
reference to its expression of the idea of "distant destination," it was applied by 
later writers to naval expeditions, and in the speeches of Demosthenes, who fre- 
quently uses the word, it is entirely confined to the meaning of a "warlike expedi- 
tion,^^ out and sent by sea to a distant contest." (References to numerous pas- 
sages in Demosthenes, where this term is used, may be found in Stephens's Thesau- 
rus, on the word.) From the fleet itself, the term was finally transferred to the naval 
commander sent out with it, so that in this connexion it became equivalent to the 
modern title of "admiral." 

In all these ancient classical applications of the word to persons, is preserved a 
constant reference to the original idea of its root. It everywhere means, not merely- 
"one sent," but " one equipped" with a high commission as the representative of a supe- 
rior power. This peculiarity of its meaning is well marked by the acute Suicer, in 
his exposition of the word. " In communi ergo Graecorum usu, apostoli dicebantur 
certi homines, qui negotii gerendi gratia magis, quam deferendi nuncii, aliquo mitte- 
bantur;" — "sent rather for the purpose of managing some business, than of merely 
carrying a message." This idea of the implied force of the word is still more dis- 
tinctly brought out and improved by Schleusner. (Lex. Nov. Test, in voc.) He 
says,— "it means, not merely a messenger, but a messenger who is the representative 
(or vicegerent) of him who sends him." ("Non nude nuntium, sed nuntium vices 
mittentisgerentem.") In short, it is of a higher import than the word messenger, and 
designates a person as the representative and minister plenipotentiary of the power 
that commissions him. Such are evidently its uses in Herodotus, (for an embassa- 
dor plenipotentiary, with full powers to treat and conclude a treaty,) and by Demos- 
thenes, (for an admiral, or naval commander-in-chief, representing the sovereign 
absolute power of the state.) These are the only significations given by Hesychius. 
(See his Lexicon, in drrdoroAo?, and rrpfaiSeis.) 

The earliest passage in the sacred records of Christianity, in which the word 



14 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

apostle is used, is the second verse of the tenth chapter of Matthew, where the dis- 
tinct nomination of the twelve chief disciples is first mentioned. They are here 
called apostles, and as the term is used in connexion with their being equipped with 
instructions and sent out on their first mission, it seems plain that the application of 
the name had a direct reference to this primary signification. The word, indeed, 
which Jesus uses in the sixteenth verse, (when he says, " Behold ! I send you forth as 
sheep in the midst of wolves/') is dTroo-rtAAw, (apostello.) and when in the fifth verse-, 
Matthew, after enumerating and naming the apostles, says, " These twelve Jesus sent 
forth" the past tense of the same verb is used, {dTrEaruXev, apesteilen.) Mark also, in 
his third chapter, relating the appointment and commissioning of the twelve, uses 
this verb in verse 14. " And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and 
that he might send them forth to preach," {a-rroartXXr,, apostelle.) Luke merely men- 
tions the name apostle, in giving the list of the twelve, (vi. 13,) and ix. 2 gives the 
verb in the same way as Matthew. The term certainly is of rare occurrence in all 
the gospels ; those persons who are thus designated being commonly mentioned under 
the general title of disciple or learner, (//afl^r/j?,) and when it is necessary to separate 
them from the rest of Christ's followers, they are designated, from their number, " the 
twelve." John never uses it in this sense, nor does Mark in giving the list, though 
he does in vi. 30, and the only occasion on which it is applied to the twelve by 
Matthew, is that of their being equipped and sent forth on their brief experimental 
mission through Galilee, to announce the approach of the Messiah's reign. The 
simple reason for this remarkable exclusion of the term from common use in the 
gospel story, is, that only on that one occasion just mentioned, were they equipped as 
apostles, or persons sent forth by a superior. This circumstance shows a beautiful 
justness and accuracy in the use of the words by the gospel writers, who, in this mat- 
ter at least, seem to have fully apprehended the true etymological force of the noble 
language in which they wrote. The twelve, during the whole life of Jesus, were 
never sent forth to proclaim their Lord's coming, except once ; but until the ascen- 
sion, they were simple learners, or disciples, (^a^raj, mathetai,) and not apostles or 
messengers, who had so completely learned the will of God as to be qualified to 
teach it to others. But immediately after the final departure of Jesus, the sacred 
narrative gives them the title of apostles with much uniformity, because they had 
now, by their ascending Lord, been solemnly prepared by his last words, and sent 
forth as embassadors " to all nations." Even common readers of the New Testa- 
ment must notice that, in the Acts of the Apostles, this title is the most usual one 
given to the chosen twelve, though even there an occasional use is made of the col- 
lective term taken from the idea of their number. It deserves notice, however, that 
Luke, the author of the Acts, even in his gospel, uses this name more frequently 
than any other of the evangelists; and his individual preference for this word may, 
perhaps, have had some influence in producing its very frequent use in the second 
part of his narrative, though the whole number of times when it is used in his gospel 
is only six, whereas in Acts it occurs twenty-seven times. So that on the whole it 
would seem clear, that the change from the common use of the term " disciple," in 
the gospels, to that of "apostle," in the history of their acts after the ascension, was 
made in reference to the corresponding change in the character and duties of the 
persons thus named. 

The name apostle is not only shown by New Testament usage to have had an origi- 
nal reference to the sense of preparation and equipment, as well as of sending, but is 
still further illustrated in this deeper meaning by the explanations offered by the 
Christian Fathers. It is true that these ancient writers were not endued with either 
the learning or the taste essential to minute philological investigation ; but the familiar 
acquaintance which many of them had with the usages of the language that they 
spoke and wrote, enabled them to see that the word apostolos meant something more 
than barely " a person sent;" for, in their explanations, they distinctly acknowledge 
the additional force which has already been expressed in the definition given above 
from Suicer, the great patristic lexicographer. Thus Theophylact, commenting on 
2 Cor. viii. 23, says " Apostles of the churches, — that is, those who were sent and 
ordained (or appointed) by the churches." He does not rest satisfied with the simple 
definition of " sent," {-e^Qevreg, pemphthentes ;) but appends a word implying the addi- 
tional force of complete preparation and equipment, with all that the consecrating 
commission of the church could furnish. In the same manner also Gluintinus, though 
a Latin writer, partly appreciated this additional force of the word. "Apostolus 
Graece, dicitur Latin e missus,— nuncius 3 legatus, qui cum mandatis aliquo viiltitur; ,i 



PLAN AND SCOPE. 15 

" one who is sent anywhere with commands" or " a commission." The Latin Fathers 
in general, however, seem not to have apprehended the distinction between this word 
and the mere participle " sent," by which they translate it without any additional sense. 
Thus Tertullian (De praescript. 20,) interprets the name " Apostle" by the participle 
"sent," merely. (" Apostoli quos haec appellatio missos interpretatur.") Chrysostom, 
as well as Theophylact and Theodoret, (commenting on Hebrews iii. 1,) being all 
Grecians, were led to illustrate that peculiar application of the word apostle, by a 
reference to its theme. 'Attogto'Xos Sta to diT£<TTd\dat. 

By way of summary, the various applications and significations of the word 
'AnoaroXos, may be arranged according to the class of writers using it. 

In the classic Greek. 1. An embassador. Herodotus, Hesychius. 2. (Adjectively,) 
A vessel equipped for distant service, and sent as a transport or express. He- 
rodot. and Plato. 3. A naval armament — a whole fleet, equipped, commissioned, and 
sent, on a distant expedition. Demosthenes. 4. A naval commander-in-chief— no. 
admiral, sent in command of a distant expedition. Demosthenes, Hesychius. . 5. A 
brideman — the person who, in the arrangements of a Grecian wedding, was sent by 
the bridegroom to wait upon the bride from her father's house to her husband's. 
(This use of the word does not occur in any of the extant classics, as far as I know ; 
but the fact that it was thus used in classic days, is preserved by Phavorinus, or 
Favorinus, a lexicographer of the age of Adrian.) Witsius. Melet. Leid., Vit. 
Paul. ii. 17. The common classical name for this bridal attendant was, 'Nvufayoyds, 
{Numphagogos.) 

In the New Testament, it is applied only to persons, and is never used for inanimate 
things. There are various classes of persons to whom this term is thus applied. — 
I. Those commissioned and sent directly from God to man. In this sense it is applied 
(1.) to Jesus, Heb. iii. 1. This passage was distinctly explained by Chrysostom, 
Theophylact, and Theodoret, as referring to the primary general meaning of the 
word, and not to any previous application to any person or set of persons. (See their 
expositions, as given in Suicer's Thesaur. Ecc. in voce. I. 1.) (2.) It is applied indefi- 
nitely to persons sent from God, where they* are classed together without individual- 
ization. Luke xi. 49 ; Rev. ii. 2, &c. — II. Those directly commissioned to the 
work of spreading the gospel; among whom are noticeable three distinct divisions: 
(1.) The twelve chief disciples, chosen personally by Jesus Christ in bodily form, 
(except Matthias,) — all Galileans, (Acts i. 11; ii. 7, &c.) — enjoying his personal 
instructions, counsels, and warnings; and made the eyewitnesses of "his wonderful 
works throughout the whole period of his public ministry. (2.) The two later apos- 
tles, (Actsxiv. 4. 14,) Paul and Barnabas, — personally unknown to Jesus, (probably,) 
or at least never enjoying his peculiar instructions, nor honored by his personal com- 
mission, but distinctly summoned by the Holy Spirit, (Acts xiii. 2, 4,) the former, 
also, in a vision by Jesus, (Acts xxvi. 16, 17,) — both Hellenists, or Jews brought up 
among the Gentiles, — and speaking, reading, and writing the Greek language. — III. 
Those commissioned and summoned to the gospel work only by human agencies, and 
altogether uninspired, and thus of inferior rank as Christian ministers, and called 
apostles, not in the sense in which the twelve, and Paul and Barnabas, were thus 
named, but in the mere common meaning of the Greek word, as " messengers" between 
Paul and the churches. — These are thus incidentally mentioned in but two or three 
places. — Titus and his companion employed in collecting the contributions of the 
churches, (2 Cor. viii. 23,) — Epaphroditus, (Philippians ii. 25.) Perhaps also Andro- 
nicus and Junias, (Junia in the common versions.) See Schleusner, Bretschneider, 
Wahl, and Rosenmuller. (Rom. xvi. 7.) 

In the writings of the Christian Fathers, the name is still farther extended to per- 
sons of inferior rank, being applied indefinitely to all ministers or pastors of the 
church, who are (fitted, equipped, and) sent to preach the gospel. (J. C. Suicer. 
Thes. Ecc. in voce.) Salvianus, of Gaul, in the preface to his book on avarice, 
calls Timothy an apostle ; and Pachymeres does the same. (De coel. Hierarchia. II.) 
Hydatius, or Idatius, in his Fasti Consulares, quoted by Barthius, (Advers. LI. iv.) 
speaks of Timothy as an apostle, and also of Luke, associating him and Andrew 
under the title of Apostles. The old calendar of the Greek church speaks of Phile- 
mon and Archippus as apostles; and mentions the appointment of the seventy 
apostles by Jesus. (Luke xi. 1. 17.) It even includes Apphia, a female, among them; 
and Theophanes, (Horn. 30,) says of Mary Magdalene, that, in announcing the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ, " she became an apostle to the apostles." By writers of far 
earlier date, and much higher authority, the term is, with peculiar justice, applied to 



16 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Mark and Luke, the fellow-laborers of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, and inspired as the 
writers of the gospels. Eusebius (Hist. Ecc. II. 24) calls "Mark, the apostle and 
evangelist ;" and (I. 13) calls Thaddeus an apostle. In the Synopsis ascribed to 
Athanasius, Luke is called " the blessed apostle and physician." But Suicer does 
not seem to know these three passages. 

Another very peculiar usage in the early ecclesiastical writers, is in application to 
things by a metonymy from the persons, naming the work from the author. It is 
used as the name of the epistolary portion of the New Testament, which, in the 
ancient liturgies, was divided into the Gospel and the Apostles, corresponding to the 
Law and the Prophets — the principal divisions of the Hebrew scriptures. This part 
of the ancient liturgy being made up mostly of the epistles of Paul, was therefore 
named in the singular number, and with the early Fathers, is often used for the writings 
of this apostle alone. Origen, quoted by Eusebius, (H. E. vi. 38,) and Theodoret, 
(Haeret. fab. ii. 7,) use the term in this sense. In application to the liturgy, Cyril 
of Scythopolis, (in Vit. Sabae,) and Codinus, (cap. vi.) are quoted by Suicer. 

On the usages of this word, among the Fathers, Suicer is by no means so full as 
might be expected; and many valuable references, in addition, are obtained from H. 
Valesius, (Annotat. in Euseb. H. E. I. 12, II. 24, pp. 21 and 41, of the Mayence 
edition, 1672.) He quotes Eusebius (I. 12) as distinctly saying, that though, by 
Jesus Christ, the twelve only were called apostles, yet the term was afterward ex- 
tended to very many others, in imitation of the twelve : (ykdaruv oowv vnaptuvTuv 
'Ajtoo-toXwi', Kara pifiri<nv twv SwSekci.) Valesius quotes also Epiphanius, Jerome, Hilary, 
the Theodosian code, and Metaphrastes, for the various extensions of the term. 

By the Jews, of the early ages of the Christian era, the term dndaToXos was applied 
to a class of officers among them, described by Eusebius, as employed to bear the 
circulars addressed by the chiefs of the Jewish faith at Jerusalem, to the Jews through- 
out the world. Oecumenius is also quoted to the same effect, as to this use of the 
term. (See Suicer and Valesius, in loc. cit.) 

By the law-vrriters, both Roman and Byzantine, the name dnoaroXot (in the plural) 
is used in a technical sense, not in application to persons, but to things, being made 
equivalent to the Latin term, " literae dimissoriae" which w r ere " letters of appeal," 
by which a cause was transferred from one tribunal to a higher one. (Basilic. V— 
Julius Paulus Patavinus. Sent. V. 34.— Brisson, De significatione verborum. IV. 
" Dimissoriae."— Meursius, Gloss, in voce. — Suicer, Thes. Ecc. in voce. 6.) 

These are all the significations which this word bears in the writings of the classic, 
the scriptural, the ecclesiastical, and the legal writers ; nor has it, as far as I know, 
ever been used in any other sense or application. No other work has ever pre- 
sented all these meanings, here collected ; and those w r ho can consult Stephens's The- 
saurus Linguae Graecae, Suicer's Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus, Stock's, Schleusner's, 
Parkhurst's, Bretschn eider's and Wahl's Lexicons of the New Testament, will find, 
that though each of these great works has contributed to the completeness of this view, 
yet no one of them contains even a majority of the particulars ; and that there are here 
many peculiarities of arrangement which differ from those and all other authorities. 

The corresponding Hebrew word, was ni 1 ?^ or n>hv (sheludhh, or shelidhh,) whose 
primary meaning, like the ordinary sense of the Greek word, is "one sent," and is 
derived from the passive Kal participle of the verb nV» (sha lahh,) meaning " he sent." 
This word is often used in the Old Testament, and is usually translated in the Alex- 
andrine Greek version, by the word dnocnoXos. A remarkable instance occurs in 
1 Kings xiv. 6; where the prophet Ahijah, speaking to the wife of Jeroboam, says, 
m 1 ?^ "03N -p^N " to thee am I sent-," the Alexandrine version gives the noun dnoaroUs, 
so as to make it literally "to thee I am an apostle," or "embassador;" or truly, in the 
just and primary sense of this Greek word, "to thee I am commissioned and sent.'* 
This passage is a valuable illustration of the use of the same Greek word in John 
xiii. 16, as above quoted. 

Aquila, also, in his Greek version of the Old Testament, has translated the He- 
brew -ox (tsir,) by this word in Isaiah xviii. 2, where the English translation gives 
" embassadors," — a word which, of course, implies some dignity and trust, above a 
mere messenger's office. Both of these Hebrew words imply this peculiar force ; and 
Schleusner (see Lex. N. T. in voc.) says, that the former, in particular, has the 
meaning, " not of a mere messenger, but of a representative vicegerent." 

The Hebrews had another word also, which they used in the sense of an apostle or 
messenger. This was "iphn {mal ak,) derived from a verb which means " send," so 
that the primary meaning of this also is "one sent." It was commonly appropri- 



PLAN AND SCOPE. 17 

a ted to angels, but was sometimes a title of prophets and priests. (Haggai i. 19 : 
Malachi ii. 7.) It was, on the whole, the most dignified term, the first-mentioned 
being never applied to angels, but restricted to men. The first and last of these terms 
are very fairly represented by the two Greek words, olttocttoIos and ayyt\o^ in English, 
11 apostle" and " angel," the latter, like its corresponding Hebrew term, being some- 
times applied to the human servants of God, as in John's address to the seven churches. 

In the different translations of the Bible, it appears that the ancient translators into 
the Shemitish languages, have represented the Greek word, by that word in each of 
their languages, which seemed to them a fair expression of the original. These 
Shemitish languages being all of the same stock as the Hebrew, express this idea by 
the same word, already referred to as the common Hebrew term for " apostle." Thus 
the Syriac (the oldest translation ever made of the New Testament) has ).^j-A.kii 
(sMlihho,) evidently the same word modified in termination, to suit the genius of the 
dialect. The ancient Arabic and Persian translators have giv^en the word \$ $***. 
(sula,) also from the same root. The Ethiopic is probably like the other Shemitish 
languages in the version of this word ; but my ignorance of the letters of that language, 
prevents me from speaking with certainty. Of the Coptic, Armenian, and other 
ancient Oriental versions, I can say nothing. 

But the Western, and all the modern versions of the New Testament, have univer- 
sally avoided translating the Greek word by any correspondent expressive term in 
their own language, and have adopted the original word, with such a change of form 
and termination as the genius of e'ach language required. Thus the Latin presented 
the Greek apostolos, almost unchanged, in apostolus; the Italian has apostolo ; the 
Spanish apostol ; the Portuguese apostelo ; the French apostre ; the English apostle; 
the German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, &c. aposlel; the Polish apostol; and probably 
all other modern languages, into which the New Testament has been translated, 
would show, to an Adelung or a Vater, this same word in a hundred varying forms. 

THE PERSONS. 

The term apostle, in modern Christian usage, is limited to the 
twelve chief disciples of Jesus Christ, and to those two of their most 
eminent associates, who are distinguished by this title in the Acts 
of the Apostles. The scope of the term in the scheme of this work 
is somewhat extended by including, along with the second class of 
apostles, certain of their, most eminent fellow-workers and fellow- 
partakers in the gifts of inspiration, to whom, in the writings of 
the early Christian Fathers, the honors of the apostolic name are 
also conceded. From the different origins, circumstances, labors, 
and characters of the first chosen apostles, and those called after 
the ascension of Jesus, arises an occasion for dividing the true 
apostles into two natural orders, whose biographies will constitute 
two totally distinct and independent divisions of their historian's 
work. From the circumstances of the origin, habits, and sectional 
peculiarities of each, these two classes are here named ; — the coun- 
tries where they originated furnishing the distinctive appellations. 
The original chosen followers of Jesus are named Galileans, from 
their native province ; and the later teachers of the Christian faith, 
having been born and educated in the regions of Hellenic re- 
finement, are named Hellenists, in accordance with the name 
applied to them by the Jews of Palestine. 
3 



18 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

I. The Galilean apostles are — Simon Peter, and Andrew 
his brother, — James and John, the sons of Zebedee, — Philip, — 
Bartholomew, — Matthew, — Thomas, — James, the son of Al- 
pheus, — Simon Zelotes, — Jude, the brother of James, — and Judas 
Iscariot, whose place was afterwards filled by Matthias. 

II. The Hellenist apostles are — Paul and Barnabas, with 
whom are included their companions, Mark and Luke, the evan- 
gelists. 

These two classes of apostles are distinguished from each other, 
mainly, by the circumstances of the appointment of each ; the 
former being all directly appointed by Jesus himself, (excepting 
Matthias, who took the forfeited commission of Judas Iscariot,) 
while the latter were summoned to the duties of the apostleship 
after the ascension of Christ ; so that they, however highly equipped 
for the labors of the office, had never enjoyed his personal instruc- 
tions ; and however well assured of the divine summons to preach 
the gospel to the Gentiles, theirs was not a distinct personal and 
bodily commission, formally given to them, and repeatedly enforced 
and renewed, as it was to the chosen ones of Christ's own appoint- 
ment. These later apostles, too, with hardly one exception, were 
foreign Jews, born and brought up beyond the bounds of the land 
of Israel, while the twelve were all Galileans, whose homes were 
within the holy precincts of their fathers' ancient heritage. Yet 
if the extent of their labors be regarded, the later commissioned 
must rank far above the twelve. Almost two thirds of the New 
Testament were written by Paul and his companions ; and before 
one of those commissioned by Jesus to go into all the world on 
their great errand, had ever gone west of the boundary of Palestine, 
Paul, accompanied either by Barnabas, Mark, Silas, or Luke, had 
gone over Syria and Asia, traversed the sea into Greece, Mace- 
donia, and Illyria, bringing the knowledge of the word of truth to 
tens of thousands, who would never have heard of it, if they had 
been made to wait for its communication by the twelve. This he 
did through constant toils, dangers, and sufferings, which as far 
transcended all which the Galilean apostles had endured, as the 
mighty results of his labors did the immediate effects of theirs. 
And afterwards, while they were struggling with the paltry and 
vexatious tyranny of the Sanhedrim, within the walls of Jerusalem, 
Paul was uttering the solemn truths of his high commission before 
governors and a king, making them to tremble with doubt and awe ; 
and, finally, bearing, in bonds and through perils, the name of Jesus 



PLAN AND SCOPE. 19 

to the capital of the world, he sounded the call of the gospel at the 
gates of Caesar. The Galilean apostles were indued with no 
natural advantages for communicating freely with foreigners ; 
their language, habits, customs, and modes of instruction, were all 
hindrances in the way of a rapid and successful progress in such 
a labor ; and they with great willingness gave up this vast field to 
the Hellenist preachers, while they occupied themselves, for 
the most part, in the conversion of the dwellers of Palestine 
and the East. For all the subtleties and mysticisms of these 
Orientals, they were abundantly provided ; the whole training 
which they had received, under the personal instructions of their 
teacher, had fitted them mainly for this very warfare ; and they 
had seen him, times without number, sweep away all these refuges 
of lies. But, with the polished and truly learned philosophers of 
Athens, or the majestic lords of Rome, they would have felt the 
want of that minute knowledge of the characters and manners of 
both Greeks and Romans, with which Paul was so familiar, by the 
circumstances of his birth and education in a city highly favored 
by Roman laws and Grecian philosophy. Thus was it wisely 
ordained, for the complete foundation and rapid extension of the 
gospel cause, that for each great field of labor there should be a 
distinct set of men, each peculiarly well fitted for their own depart- 
ment of the mighty work. And by such divinely sagacious 
appointments, the certain and resistless advance of the faith of 
Christ was so secured, and so wonderfully extended beyond the 
deepest knowledge, and above the brightest hopes of its chief 
apostles, that at this distant day, in this distant land, far beyond 
the view even of the prophetic eye of that age, millions of a race 
unknown to them, place their names above all others, but one, on 
earth and in heaven ; and to spread the knowledge of the minute 
details of their toils and triumphs, the laborious investigator must 
now search the recorded learning of eighteen hundred years, to do 
justice to the story of their lives. 

With such limitations and expansions of the term, then, this 
book attempts to give the history of the lives of the apostles. Of 
some who are thus designated, little else than the names being 
known, — they can have no claim for a large space on these pages j 
while to a few, whose actions determined the destiny of millions, 
and mainly effected the establishment of the Christian faith, the 
far greater part of the work will be given. 



20 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



THE WORLD IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

ROMAN CONQUEST. 

A view of the world, as it was at the time when the apos- 
tles began the work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
may be convenient to remind some readers, and necessary to in- 
form others, in what way its political organization operated to aid 
or hinder the advance of the faith. The peculiarities of the go- 
vernment of the regions of civilization were closely involved in 
the progress of this religious revolution, and may be considered as 
having been, on the whole, most desirably disposed for the triumph- 
ant establishment of the dominion of Christ. 

From the shores of the Atlantic to the banks of the Euphrates, 
the sway of the Roman Caesar was acknowledged by the millions 
of Western and Southern Europe, Northern Africa and South- 
western Asia. The strong grasp of warlike power was a bond 
which held together in peace many nations, who, but for that con- 
straint, would, as their previous and subsequent history shows, have 
been arrayed against each other, in contests, destructive alike of 
the happiness of the contending parties and the comfort of their 
neighbors. The mighty force of Roman genius had overcome 
the thousand barriers which nature and art had reared between 
the different nations of the three continents in which it ruled, and 
the passage from one end of that vast empire to the other, was 
without any hindrance to those who traveled on errands of peace. 
Bloody wars, long distracting the tribes of Gaul, Germany, and 
Britain, had rendered those grand sections of Europe impassable, 
and shut up each little tribe within a narrow boundary, which 
could never be crossed but with fire and sword. The deadly and 
furious contests among the nations of Southwestern Asia and 
Southeastern Europe, had long discouraged the philosophical and 
commercial enterprise, once of old so rife and free among them, 
and offered a serious hindrance to the traveler, whether journey- 
ing for information or trade ; thus greatly checking the spread of 
knowledge, and limiting each nation, in a great measure, to its 
own resources in science and art. Roman conquest, burying in 
one wide tomb all the jealousies and strifes of aspiring national 
ambition, thus put an end at once to all these causes of separation : 
it brought long-divided nations into close union and acquaintance, 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 21 

and produced a more extensive and equal diffusion of knowledge, 
as well as greater facilities for commercial intercourse, than had 
ever been enjoyed before. The rapid result of the conquerors' 
policy was the consolidation of the various nations of that vast em- 
pire into one people, — peaceful, prosperous, and for the most part 
protected in their personal and domestic rights. The savage was 
tamed, the wanderers were reclaimed from the forest, which fell 
before the march of civilization, — or from the desert, which soon 
rejoiced and blossomed under the mighty beneficence of Roman 
power. 

The fierce Gaul forsook his savage hut and dress together, 
robing himself in the graceful toga of the Roman citizen, or the 
light tunic of the colonial cultivator, and reared his solid and lofty 
dwelling in clustering cities or flourishing villages, whose deep 
foundations yet endure, in testimony of the nature of Roman con- 
quest and civilization. Under his Roman rulers and patrons, he 
raised piles of art, unequaled in grandeur, beauty, and durability, 
by any similar works in the world. Aqueducts and theatres, still 
only in incipient ruin, proclaim, in their slow decay, the greatness 
of those who reared them in a land so lately savage. 

The Pont du Gard, at Nismes, and the amphitheatres, temples, arches, gates, baths, 
bridges, and mausolea, which still adorn that city, and Aries, Vienne, Rheims, Be- 
sancon, Autun, and Metz, are the instances to which I direct those whose knowledge 
of antiquity is not sufficient to suggest these splendid remains. Almost any well 
written book of travels in France will give the striking details of their present con- 
dition. Malte-Brun also slightly alludes to them, and may be consulted by those who 
wish to learn more of the proofs of my assertion than this brief notice can give. 

The warlike Numidian and the wild Mauritanian, under the 
same iron instruction, had long ago learned to robe their primitive 
half-nakedness in the decent garments of civilized man. Even 
the distant Getulian found the high range of Atlas no sure barrier 
against the wave of triumphant arms and arts, which rolled resist- 
lessly over him, and spent itself only on the pathless sands of wide 
Sahara. So far did that all-subduing genius spread its work, and 
so deeply did it make its marks, beyond the most distant and im- 
pervious boundary of modern civilization, that the latest march of 
discovery has found far earlier adventurers before it, even in the 
Great Desert ; and within a dozen years, European travelers have 
brought to our knowledge walls and inscriptions, which, after 
mouldering unknown in the dry, lonely waste, for ages, at last met 
the astonished eyes of these gazers, with the still striking witness 
of Roman power. 



22 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

The travels of Denham and Clapperton across the desert, from Tripoli to Bor- 
nou, — of Ritchie and Lyon, to Fezzan, — of Horneraann, and others, will abundantly 
illustrate this passage. 

Egypt, already twice classic, and renowned through two mighty 
and distant series of ages, renewed her fading glories under new 
conquerors, no less worthy to possess and adorn the land of the 
Pharaohs, than were the Ptolemies. In that ancient home of art, 
the new conquerors achieved works, inferior indeed to the still 
lasting monuments of earlier greatness, but no less effectual in 
securing the ornament and defence of the land. With a warlike 
genius far surpassing the most triumphant energy of former rulers, 
the legionaries of Rome made the valley of the Nile, from its mouth 
to the eighth cataract, safe and wealthy. The desert wanderers, 
whose hordes had once overwhelmed the throne of the Pharaohs, 
and baffled the revenge of the Macedonian monarchs, were now 
crushed, curbed, or driven into the wilds ; while the peaceful tiller 
of the ground, secure against their lawless attacks, brought his 
rich harvests to a fair and certain market, through the ports and 
million ships of the Mediterranean, to the gate of his noble con- 
querors, within the capital of the world. 

The conquest of Nubia and Meroe by Caius Petronius, in the reign of Augustus, 
is the principal of those triumphs to which this paragraph refers ; and the numerous 
defeats of the Nomadic hordes of the deserts on both sides of the Nile are attested 
in the incidental notices of that country's history. (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 29.) — It was 
under Roman sway, that Egypt first acquired the name of the "granary of the 
world." A trifling illustration of this exportation may be noticed in Acts xxvii. 6, 
38 ; xxviii. 11. The ships in which Paul made his voyage to Rome were grain-ships 
from Egypt to Italy. — Strab. Geog. xvii. 

The grinding tyranny of the barbarian despots of Pontus, Arme- 
nia, and Syria, had, one after another, been swept away before the 
republican hosts of Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey ; and the remorse- 
less, stupid selfishness that has always characterized oriental despot- 
ism, even to this day, had been followed by the mild and generous 
exercise of that almost omnipotent sway, which the condition of 
the people, in most cases, showed to have been administered, in 
the main, for the good of its subjects. 

The case of Verres will perhaps rise to the minds of some of my readers, as op- 
posed to this favorable view of Roman government ; but the whole account of this 
and similar tyranny shows that such cases were looked on as most remarkable enor- 
mities, and they are recorded and noticed in such terms of abhorrence, as to justify 
us in quoting with peculiar force, the maxim, " Exceptio probat regulam." 

On the farthest eastern boundary of the empire, the Parthian, 
fighting as he fled, held out against the advance of the western 
conquerors, in a harassing and harassed independence. Here 
the flight of Roman victory was first stayed, and here the con- 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 23 

querors of Crassus iong " rode unpunished," in spite of the strains of 
prophetic adulation with which Horace soothed the baffled ambition 
of the imperial Augustus. The momentary eastern conquests of 
Trajan were no real extension of the empire ; and the primeval 
seats of power, — Assyria and Chaldea, were held under Parthian 
and Persian sway till long after the fall of Rome ; while still farther 
east, the Indian and the Tibetan dwelt through countless ages, safe- 
from western conquest, without so much as a dream about the im- 
perial sway to which the servile prophecies of Roman poets had 
devoted them. Central and Southern Arabia, then, as ever, own- 
ing no foreign lord, bounded on the south the oriental dominions 
of Rome. On the north, the ever indomitable Scythian held un- 
disturbed possession of the wild wastes where the hosts of the first 
Darius had been baffled ; but such regions, offering no inducement 
for civilizing enterprise, never invited the notice of that overwhelm- 
ing genius which instinctively directed its energies only to coun- 
tries where natural capabilities for civilization were obvious. Thus 
while the Parthian, the Arab, and the Scythian escaped con- 
quest, by the nature of their respective countries, the no less war- 
like and resolute Dacian, German, and Celt were made to yield the 
dominion of their more hopeful soil. The mountains and forests 
of central Europe, and of North-Britain, too, were indeed still 
manfully defended by their savage owners ; nor was it until they 
met the iron hosts of Germanicus, Trajan, and Agricola, that they, 
in their turn, fell under the last triumphs of the Roman eagle. 
But the peace and prosperity of the empire, and even of provinces 
near the scene, were not moved by these disturbances. And thus, 
in a longitudinal line of four thousand miles, and within a circuit 
of ten thousand, the energies of Roman genius had hushed all 
wars, and stilled the nations into a long unbroken peace, which 
secured the universal good. So nearly true was the lyric descrip- 
tion, given by Milton, of the universal peace which attended the 
coming of the Messiah : 

"No war or battle sound 
Was heard the world around ; 
The idle spear and shield were high uphung ; 
The hooked chariot stood, 
Unstained with hostile blood, 
The trumpet spake not to the armed throng ; 
And kings sat still, with awful eye, 
As if they surely knew their sovran lord was by." 

The eiforts of the conquerors did not cease with the mere mili- 
tary subjugation of a country, but were extended far beyond the 



24 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

extinction of the hostile force. The Roman soldier was not a 
mere fighter ; nor were his labors, out of the conflict, confined to 
the erection of military works only. The stern discipline, which 
made his arms triumphant in the day of battle, had also taught 
him cheerfully to exchange those triumphant arms for the tools of 
peaceful labor, that he might insure the solid permanency of his 
conquests, by the perfection of such works as would make tran- 
quillity desirable to the conquered, and soothe them to repose under 
a dominion which so effectually secured their good. Roads, that 
have made Roman ways proverbial, and which the perfection of 
modern art has never equaled, reached from the capital to the far- 
thest bounds of the empire. Seas, long dangerous and almost im- 
passable for the trader and enterprising voyager, were swept of 
every piratical vessel ; and the most distant channels of the Aegean 
and Levant, where the corsair long ruled triumphant, both before 
and since, became as safe as the porches of the Capitol. Regions, 
to which nature had furnished the indispensable gift of water, nei- 
ther in abundance nor purity, were soon blessed with artificial 
rivers, flowing over mighty arches, that will crumble only with 
the pyramids. In the dry places of Africa and Asia, as well as 
in distant Gaul, mighty aqueducts and gushing fountains refreshed 
the feverish traveler, and gave reality to the poetical prophecy, 
that " In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the 
desert." 

Roads. — I was at first disposed to make some few exceptions to this sweeping com- 
mendation of the excellence of Roman roads, by referring simply to my general 
impressions of the comparative perfection of these and modern works of the same 
character ; but on revising the facts by an examination of authorities, I have been 
led to strike out the exceptions. Napoleon's great road over the Simplon, the great 
northern road from London to Edinburgh, and some similar works in Austria, 
seemed, before comparison, in extent, durability, and in their triumphs over nature, 
to equal, if not surpass, the famed Roman ways; but a reference to the minute de- 
scriptions of these mighty works, sets the ancient far above the modern art. The 
Via Appia, "regina viarum," (Papinius Statins Surrervt. Pollii,) stretching three 
hundred and seventy miles from Rome to the bounds of Italy, built of squared 
stone, as hard as flints, and brought from a great distance, so laid together that for 
miles they seemed but a single stone, and so solidly fixed, that at this day, the road 
is as entire in many places as when first made, — the Via Flaminia, built in the same 
solid manner, — the Via Aemilia, five hundred and twenty-seven miles long,— the Via 
Portuensis, with its enormous double cause-way, — the vaulted roads of Puzzuoli 
and Baiae, hewn half a league through the solid rock, — and the thousand remains of 
similar and contemporaneous works in various parts of the world, where some are in 
use even to this day, as far better than any modern highway, — all these are enough 
to show the inquirer, that the commendation given to these works in the text, is not 
overwrought nor unmerited. The minute details of the construction of these extraor- 
dinary works, with many other interesting particulars, may be much more fully 
learned in Rees's Cyclopaedia, Articles Way, Via,, Road, Appian, &c. 

Aqueducts. — The common authorities on this subject, refer to none of these mighty 
Roman works, except those around the city of Rome itself. Those of Nismes and 
Metz, in Gaul, and that of Segovia, in Spain, are sometimes mentioned j but the 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 25 

reader would be led to suppose, that other portions of the Roman empire were not 
blessed with these noble works. Rees's Cyclopaedia is very full on this head, in re- 
spect to the aqueducts of the great city itself, but conveys the impression that they 
were not known in many distant parts of the empire. Montfaucon gives no more 
satisfactory information on the subject. But a reference to books of travels or topog- 
raphy, which describe the remains of Roman art in its ancient provinces in Africa 
and Asia, will at once give a vivid impression of the extent and frequency of these 
works. Shaw's travels in northern Africa, give accounts of aqueducts, cisterns, 
fountains, and reservoirs, along through all the ancient Roman dominions in that 
region. The Modern Traveler (by Conder) will give abundant accounts of the re- 
mains of these works, in this and various other countries alluded to in the text ; and 
some of them, still so perfect, as to serve the common uses of the inhabitants to this 
day. In Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and even in Greece and Egypt, to this day 
the monuments of Roman dominion vindicate the glory of their authors, by the re- 
markable convenience and utility^ as well as solidity and finish, which distinguish all 
these remains of Roman art. 

CAESAR, Christ's forerunner. 

All these mighty influences, working for the peace and comfort 
of mankind, and so favorable to the spread of religious knowledge, 
had been further secured by the triumphant and firm establish- 
ment of the throne of the Caesars. Under the alternating sway of the 
aristocracy and democracy of Rome, conquest had indeed steadily 
stretched east, west, north, and south, alike over barbarian and 
Greek, through the wilderness and the city. A long line of illus- 
trious consuls, such as Marcellus, the Scipios, Aemilius, Marius, 
Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey, had, during the last two centuries of 
the republic, added triumph to triumph in bright succession, 
thronging the streets of the seven-hilled city with captive kings, 
and more than quadrupling her dominion. But while the cor- 
ruption of conquest was fast preparing the dissipated people to 
make a willing exchange of their political privileges, for " bread 
and amusements/' the more enlightened of the citizens were 
getting tired of the distracting and often bloody changes of popular 
favoritism, and were ready to receive as a welcome deliverer, any 
man who could give them the calm repose of a despotism, in place 
of the remorseless and ferocious tyranny of a brutal mob. In this 
turn of the world's destiny, there arose one in all points equal to 
the task of sealing both justice and peace to the vanquished nations, 
by wringing from the hands of a haughty people, the same political 
power which they had caused so many to give up to their un- 
sparing gripe. He was one who, while, to common eyes, he seemed 
devoting the flower of his youth and the strength of his manhood 
to idleness and debauchery, was learning such wisdom as could 
never have been learned in the lessons of the sage, — wisdom in the 
characters, the capabilities, the corruption, and venality of his ple- 
4 



26 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES, 

beian sovrans. And yet he was not one who scorned the instruc- 
tions of the learned, nor turned away from the records of others' 
knowledge. In the schools of Rhodes, he sat, a patient student of 
the art and science of the orator, and searched deeply into the 
stored treasures of Grecian philosophy. Resplendent in arms as 
in arts, he devoted to swift and deserved destruction the pirates of 
the Aegean, while yet only a raw student ; and with the same 
energy and rapidity, in Rome, attained the peaceful triumphs of the 
eloquence which had so long been his study. The flight of years 
passed over him, alike victorious in the factious strife of the capital, 
and in the deadly struggle with the Celtic savages of Northwestern 
Europe. Ruling long-conquered Spain in peace, and subjugating 
still barbarous Gaul, he showed the same ascendant genius which 
made the greatest minds of Rome his willing and despised tools, 
and crushed them when they at last dreamed of independence or 
resistance. In the art military, supreme and unconquered, whether 
met by the desperate savage of the forest or desert, or by the veteran 
legions of republican Rome, — in the arts of intrigue, more than a 
match for the subtlest deceivers of a jealous democracy, — as an 
orator, winning the hearts and turning the thoughts of those who 
were the hearers of Cicero, — as a writer, unmatched even in that 
Ciceronian age, for strength and flowing ease, though writing in a 
camp, amid the fatigues of a savage warfare, — in all the accom- 
plishments that adorn and soften, and in all the manly exercises 
that ennoble and strengthen, alike complete, — in battle, in storm, 
on the ocean and on land, in the collected fury of the charge, and 
the sudden shock of the surprise, always dauntless and cool, show- 
ing a courage never shaken, though so often tried, — to his friends 
kind and generous, — to his vanquished foes, without exception, 
merciful and forgiving, — beloved by the former, respected by the 
latter, and adored by the people, — a scholar, an astronomer, a poet, 
a wit, a gallant, an orator, a statesman, a warrior, a governor, a 
monarch, — his vast and various attainments, so wonderful in that 
wonderful age, have secured to him, from the great of his own and 
all following times, the undeniable name of the most perfect 
character of all ANTIQ.UITY. Such a man was CAIUS 
JULIUS CAESAR. He saved the people from themselves ; he 
freed them from their own tyranny, and ended for ever, in Rome, 
the power of the populace to meddle with the disposal of the great 
interests of the consolidated nations of the empire. It was neces- 
sary that it should be so. The empire was too vast for an ignorant 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 27 

and stupid democracy to govern. The safety and comfort of the 
world required a better rule ; and never was any man, in the 
course of Providence, more wonderfully prepared as the instrument 
of a mighty work, than was Julius Caesar, as the founder of a 
throne which was to be coeval with the political dominion of 
Rome. For the accomplishment of this wonderful purpose, every 
one of his countless excellences seems to have done something ; 
and nothing less than he, could have thus achieved a task, which 
prepared the way for the advance of a power, that was to outlast 
his throne and the Eternal city. Under the controlling influence of 
his genius, the world was so calmed, subjugated, and arranged, 
that the gates of all nations were opened for the peaceful entrance 
of the preachers of the gospel. So solidly did he lay the founda- 
tion of his dominion, that even his own murder, by the objects of 
his undeserved clemency, made not the slightest change in the fate 
of Rome ; for the paltry intrigues and fights of a few years ended 
in placing the power which Caesar had won, in the hands of his 
heir and namesake, whose most glorious triumphs were but 
straws on the mighty stream of events, which Julius had set in 
motion. 

Caesar. — Those who are accustomed merely to the common cant of many would- 
be philanthropists, about the destruction of the liberties of Rome, and the bloody- 
minded atrocity of their destroyer, will doubtless feel shocked at the favorable view 
taken of his character above. The truth is, there was no liberty in Rome for Caesar 
to destroy : the question of political freedom having been long before settled in the 
triumphant ascendency of faction, the only choice was between one tyrant and ten 
thousand. No one can question that Caesar was the fair choice of the great mass of 
the people. They were always on his side, in opposition to the aristocracy, who 
sought his ruin because they considered him dangerous to their privileges, and their 
liberty (to tyrannize ;) and their fears were grounded on the very circumstance that 
the vast majority of the people were for him. This was the condition of parties until 
Caesar's death, and long after, to the time of the final triumph of Octavius. Not one 
of Caesar's friends among the people ever became his enemy, or considered him as 
having betrayed their affection by his assumptions of power. Those who murdered 
him, and plunged the world from a happy, universal peace, into the devastating hor- 
rors of a wide-spread and protracted civil war, were not the patriotic avengers of an 
oppressed people ; they were the jealous supporters of a haughty aristocracy, who 
saw their powers and dignity diminished, in being shared with numbers of the lower 
orders, added to the senate by Caesar : and his steady determination to humble them, 
they saw in his refusal to pay them homage by rising, when the hereditary aris- 
tocracy of Rome took their seats in the senate. It was to redeem the failing powers of 
their privileged order, that these aristocratic assassins murdered the man whose 
mercy had triumphed over his prudence, in sparing the forfeited lives of those heredi- 
tary, dangerous foes of popular rights. Nor could they for a moment blind the 
people to the nature and object of their action ; for as soon as the murder had been 
committed, the universal cry for justice, which rose at once from the whole mass of 
the people, indignant at the butchery of their friend, drove the gang of conspirators 
from Rome and from Italy, which they were never permitted again to enter. Those 
who thronged to the standard of the heir and friend of Caesar, were the hosts of 
the democracy, that never rested till they had crushed and exterminated the miserable 
faction of aristocrats, who had hoped to triumph over the mass of the people, by the 



28 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

death of the people's great friend. Now if the people of Rome chose to give up their 
whole power, and the disposal of their political affairs, into the hands of a great, a 
talented, a generous, and heroic man, like Caesar, who had so effectually vindicated 
and secured their freedom against the claims of a domineering aristocracy, and if 
they afterward remained so well satisfied with the use which he made of this power, 
as never to make the slightest effort, nor on any occasion to express the least wish, 
to resume it, I would like to know who had any business to hinder the sovran people 
from so doing, or what blame can in any way be laid to Caesar's charge, for accept- 
ing, and for nobly and generously using the power so freely and heartily given up 
to him. 

The protracted detail of his mental and physical greatness, given in the sketch of 
his character above, would need for its full defence and illustration, the mention of 
such numerous particulars, that I must be content with challenging any doubter, to 
a reference to the record of the actions of his life ; and such a reference will abun- 
dantly confirm every particular of the description. The steady and unanimous de- 
cision of the learned and the truly great of different ages, since his time, is enough 
to show his solid claims to the highest praise here given. Passing over the glory so 
uniformly yielded to him by the learned and eloquent of ancient days, we have among 
moderns the disinterested opinions of such men as the immortal Lord Verulam, from 
whom came the sentence given above, pronouncing him " the most complete character 
of all antiquity ;" a sentiment which, probably, no man of minute historical know- 
ledge ever read without a hearty acquiescence. This opinion has been quoted with 
approbation by our own greatest statesman, Alexander Hamilton, than whom none 
knew better how to appreciate real greatness. Lord Byron (Note 47 on Canto IV. 
of Childe Harold) also quotes this sentence approvingly, and in the same passage 
gives a most interesting view of Caesar's versatile genius and varied accomplish- 
ments, entering more fully into some particulars than that here given. The sentence 
of the Roman historian, Suetonius, (Jure caesus existimetur,) seems to me, to refer 
not to the moral fitness or actual right of his murder, but to the common law or an- 
cient usage of Rome, by which any person of great influence, who was considered 
powerful enough to be dangerous to the ascendency of the patrician rank, or to the 
established order of things in any way, might be killed by any self-constituted execu- 
tioner, even though the person thus murdered on bare suspicion of a liability to be- 
come dangerous, should really be innocent of the charge of aspiring to supreme 
power. (" Melium jure caesum pronuntiavit, etiam si regni crimine insons fuerit." 
Liv. lib. iv. cap. 48.) The idea that such an abominable outrage on the claim of an 
innocent man to his own life, could ever be seriously defended as morally right, is too 
palpably preposterous to bear a consideration. Such a principle of policy must have 
originated in a republicanism, somewhat similar to that which tolerates those expres- 
sions of public opinion, which have lately become famous under the name of Lynch 
law. It was a principle which in Rome enabled the patricidn order to secure the de- 
struction of any popular man of genius and intelligence, who, being able, might 
become willing to effect a revolution which would humble the power of the patrician 
aristocracy. The murder of the Gracchi, also, may be taken as a fair specimen of 
the Lynch-law r way in which the aristocracy were disposed to check the spirit of 
reform. 

The work of Caesar, then, was twofold, like the tyranny which he was to subvert; 
and well did he achieve both objects of his mighty efforts. Having first brought 
down the pride and the power of an overbearing aristocracy, he next, by the force 
of the same dominant genius, wrested the ill-wielded dominion from the unsteady 
hands of the fickle democracy, making them willingly subservient to the great pur- 
pose of their own subjugation, and acquiescent in the generous sway of one, whom a 
sort of political instinct taught them to fix on. as the man destined to rule them. 

Thus were the complicated and contradictory principles of Roman government 
exchanged for the simplicity of monarchical rule ; an exchange most desirable for 
the peace and security of the subjects of the government. The empire was no longer 
shaken with the constant vacillations of supremacy from the aristocracy to the de« 
mocracy, and from the democracy to the demagogues, alternately their tyrants and 
their slaves. The solitary tyranny of an emperor was occasionally found terrible 
in some of its details; but the worst of these could never outgo the republican cruel- 
ties of Marius and Sylla ; and there was, at least, this one advantage on the side of 
those suffering under the monarchical tyranny, which would not be available in the 
case of the victims of mob-despotism : — this was — the ease with which a single stroke 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 29 

with a well-aimed dagger could remove the evil at once, and secure some cnance of 
achaoge for the better, as was the case with Caligula, Nero, and Domitian; and 
though the advantages of the change were much more manifest in the two latter 
cases than in the former, yet, even in that, the relief experienced softened the 
crime. But a whole tyrannical populace could not be so easily and summarily disposed 
of; and those who suffered by such despotism, could only wait till the horrid butch- 
eries of civil strife, or the wasting carnage of foreign warfare, had used up the ener- 
gies and the superfluous blood of the populace, and swept the flower of the demo- 
cracy, by legions, to a wide and quiet grave. The remedy of the evil was therefore 
much slower, and more undesirable in its operation, in this case than in the other ; 
while the evil itself was actually more widely injurious. For, on the one hand, 
what imperial tyrant ever sacrificed so many victims in Rome, or produced such 
wide-wasting ruin, as either of those republican chiefs, Marius and Sylla'J And on 
the other hand, when, in the most glorious and peaceful days of the aristocratic or 
democratic sway, did military glory, literature, science, art, commerce, and the 
whole common weal, so flourish and advance, as under the imperial Augustus, the 
sage Vespasian and the amiable Titus, the heroic Trajan, the polished Adrian, or 
the wise and philosophic Antonines 1 Never did Rome wear the aspect of a truly 
majestic city, till the imperial pride of her long line of Caesars had filled her with 
the temples, amphitheatres, circuses, aqueducts, baths, triumphal columns and arches, 
which to this day perpetuate the solid glory of the founders, and make her the won- 
der of the world, — while not one surviving great work of taste claims a republican 
for its author. 

To such a glory did the Caesars raise her, and from such a splendor did she fade, 
as now. 

" Such is the moral of all human tales ; 
'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, — 
First freedom, and then glory, — when that fails, 
Wealth, vice, corruption, — barbarism at last; 
And history, with all her volumes vast, 
Hath but one page." 

An allusion to such a man, in such a book as this, could not be 
justified, but on this satisfactory ground ; — that the changes which 
he wrought in the Roman government, and the conquests by 
which he spread and secured the influence of Roman civilization, 
seem to have done more than any other political action could do, 
to effect the general diffusion, and the perpetuity of the Christian 
faith. A glance at these great events, in this light, will show to 
us the first imperial Caesar, as Christ's most mighty precursor, un- 
wittingly preparing the way for the advance of the Messiah, — a 
bloody and all-crushing warrior, opening the path for the equally 
resistless triumphs of the Prince of Peace. Even this striking 
characteristic of cool and unscrupulous ambition, became a most 
efficient means for the production of this strange result. This 
same moral obtuseness, too, about the right of conquest, so hein- 
ous in the light of modern ethics, but so blameless and even 
praise-worthy in the eyes of the good and great of Caesar's days, 
shows us how low was the world's standard of right before the 
coming of Christ ; and yet this insensibility became, in the hands of 
the God who causes the wrath of man to praise him, a doubly pow- 
erful means of spreading that faith whose essence is love to man. 



30 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Look over the world, then, as it was before the Roman con- 
quest, and see the difficulties, both physical and moral, that would 
have attended the universal diffusion of a new and peaceful reli- 
gious faith. Barbarous nations, all over the three continents, 
warring with each other, and with the failing outworks of civil- 
ization, — besotted tyranny, wearing out the energies of its subjects, 
by selfish, ruinous, and all-grasping folly, — sea and land swarming 
with marauders, and every wheel of science and commerce roll- 
ing backward or breaking down. Such was the seemingly resist- 
less course of events, when the star of Roman fortune rose in the 
ascendant, under whose influence, at once destructive and benign, 
the advancing hosts of barbarity were checked and overthrown, 
and their triumphs stayed for five hundred years ; the elegance 
of Grecian refinement was transplanted from the degraded land 
of its birth, to Italian soil, and the most ancient tracks of com- 
merce, as well as many new ones, were made as safe as they are 
at this peaceful day. The mighty Caesar, last of all, casting 
down all thrones but his, and laying the deep basis of its lasting 
dominion in the solid good of millions, filled up the valleys, leveled 
the mountains, and smoothed the plains, for the march of that 
monarch, whose kingdom is without end. 

ROMAN AND CHRISTIAN TRIUMPHS. 

The connexion of such a political change with the success of 
the Christian enterprise, and with the perfect development and 
triumph of our peaceful faith, depends on the simple truth, that 
Christianity always flourishes best in the most highly civilized 
communities, and can never be so developed as to do full justice 
to its capabilities, in any state of society, short of the highest 
point of civilization. It never has been received and held incor- 
rupt, by mere savages or wanderers ; and it never can be. Thus 
and therefore it was, that wherever Roman conquest spread, and 
secured the lasting triumphs of civilization, thither Christianity 
followed, and flourished as on a congenial soil, — till at last not one 
land was left in the whole empire, where the eagle and the dove 
did not spread their wings in harmonious triumph. In all these 
lands, where Roman civilization prepared the way, Christian 
churches rose, and gathered within them the noble and the re- 
fined, as well as the humble and the poor. Spain, Gaul, Britain, 
and Africa, as well as the ancient homes of knowledge, Egypt, 
Greece, and Asia, are instances of this kind. And in every one 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 31 

of these, the reign of the true faith became coeval with civiliza- 
tion, — yielding in some instances, it is true, on the advance of 
modern barbarism, but only when the Arabian prophet made them 
bow before his Sword. Yet while within the pale of Roman con- 
quest, Christianity supplanted polytheism, beyond that wide circle, 
heathenism remained long undisturbed, till the victorious march 
of the barbarian conquerors over the empire of the Caesars, se- 
cured the extension of the gospel to them also, — the vanquished, 
in one sense, triumphing in turn over the victors, by making them 
the submissive subjects of Roman civilization, language, and reli- 
gion ; — so that for the first five hundred years of the Christian 
era, the dominion of the Caesars was the most efficient earthly in- 
strument for the extension of the faith. The persecutions whkh 
the followers of the new faith occasionally suffered, were the result 
of aberrations from the general principles of tolerance which char- 
acterized the religious policy of the empire ; and after a few such 
acts of insane cruelty, the natural course of reaction brought the 
persecuted religion into fast increasing and finally universal favor. 
If the religion, thus widely and lastingly diffused, was corrupted 
from the simplicity of the truth as it was in Jesus, this corruption 
is to be charged, not against the Romans, but against those un- 
worthy successors of the apostles and ancient fathers, who sought 
to make the severe beauty of the naked truth more acceptable to 
the heathenish fancies of the people, by robing it in the borrowed 
finery of mythology. Yet, though thus humiliated in its triumph, 
the victory of Christianity over that complex and dazzling religion, 
was most complete. The faith to which Italians and Greeks had 
been devoted for ages, — which had drawn its first and noblest 
principles from the mysterious sources of the antique Etruscan, 
Egyptian, and Phoenician, and had enriched its dark and bound- 
less plan with all that the varied superstitions of every conquered 
people could furnish, — the faith which had rooted itself so deeply 
in the poetry, the patriotism, and the language of the Roman, and 
had so twined itself with every scene of his nation's glory, from 
the days of Romulus, — now gave way before the simple word of 
the carpenter of Nazareth, and was so torn up and swept aWay 
from its strongholds, that the very places which through twenty 
generations its triumphs had hallowed, were now turned into 
shrines for the worship of the God of despised Judah. So utterly 
was the Olympian Jove unseated, and cast down from his long- 
dreaded throne, that his name passed away for ever from the wor- 



32 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ship of mankind, and has never been recalled, but with contempt. 
He, and all his motley train of gods and goddesses, are remembered 
no more with reverence ; but vanishing from even the knowledge 
of the mass of the people, are 

" Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were," — 
" A school-boy's tale." 

Every ancient device for the perpetuation of the long-established 
faith disappeared in the advancing light of the gospel. Temples, 
statues, oracles, festivals, and all the solemn paraphernalia of su- 
perstition, were swept to oblivion ; or, changing their names only, 
were made the instruments of recommending the new faith to the 
eyes of the common people. But, however the pliant spirit of the 
degenerate successors of the early fathers might bend to the vul- 
gar superstitions of the day, the establishment of the Christian 
religion, upon the ruins of Roman heathenism, was effected with 
a completeness that left not the shadow of a name, nor the 
vestige of a form, to keep alive in the minds of the people the 
memory of the ancient religion. The words applied by our great 
poet to the time of Christ's birth, have something more than poet- 
ical force, as a description of the absolute extermination of these 
superstitions, both public and domestic, on the final triumph of 
Christianity. 

" The oracles are dumb; 

No voice or hideous hum 

Rolls through the arched roof in words deceiving. 

Apollo from his shrine 

Can no more divine, 

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 

No nightly trance or breathed spell 

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell." 
* * * 

" In consecrated earth 

And on the holy hearth, 

The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; 

In urns and altars round, 

A drear and dying sound 

Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint; 

And the chill marble seems to sweat, 

While each peculiar power foregoes his wonted seat." 

Thus were the mighty labors of human ambition made sub- 
servient to the still greater achievments of divine benevolence ; 
thus did the unholy triumphs of the hosts of heathenism become, 
in the hands of the All-wise, the surest means of spreading the 
holy and peace-making truths of Christianity to the ends of the 
earth, — otherwise scarcely approachable without a miracle. The 
dominion which thus grew upon and over the vast empire of Rome, 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 33 

though growing with her growth and strengthening with her 
strength, sunk not with her weakness, — but, stretching abroad 
fresh branches, whose leaves were for the healing of nations then 
unknown, showed its divine origin by its immortality; while, 
alas ! its human modifications betrayed themselves in its diminished 
grace and ill-preserved symmetry. Yet in spite of these, rather 
than by means of them, it rose still mightier above the ruins of 
the empire under whose shadow it had grown, till, at last, sup- 
planting Roman and Goth alike, it fixed its roots on the seven 
hills of the Eternal city; where, thenceforth, for hundreds of 
years, the head of Christendom, ruling with a power more abso- 
lute than her imperial sway, saw more than the Roman world 
beneath him. Even to this day, vast and countless "regions, 
Caesar never knew,'' own him of Rome as " the Centre of unity j" 
and lands 

" farther west 
Than the Greek's islands of the blest," 

and farther east than the long-unpassed bounds of Roman con- 
quest, turn, with an adoration and awe immeasurably greater than 
the most exalted of the apotheosized Caesars ever received, to him 
who claims the name of the successor of the poor fisherman of 
Galilee. 

PALESTINE IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

The land of Israel was the true country of all the apostles ; for 
thence all Jews, throughout the world, had originally sprung ; and 
however changed in language and manners by gentile intercourse, 
they still sent back their hearts to that, as their father land, — 
deeming themselves but strangers and pilgrims in all other places 
where they might dwell or wander. A view of the condition of 
Palestine in the apostolic age will, therefore, be appropriate and 
interesting, as an illustration of many of the most important inci- 
dents in apostolic history, which were either wholly caused, or 
greatly affected, by the moral, religious, social, and political pecu- 
liarities of the country where the gospel work began, — peculiarities 
not less striking, nor less remarkably connected with the success 
of that work, than were those of the Roman world, as just sur- 
veyed. 

Palestine, though made the subject of Roman conquest as early 
as any of the countries around it, yet did not so wholly lose its 
national individuality as many that were conquered before and 
— ■ 5 



34 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

after it. The leading incidents in its previous history were so 
peculiarly connected with this circumstance, that a reference to 
them will help to show how a country, so limited in extent, and 
so feeble in political influence, should have been thus eminently 
favored above the great Syrian and Egyptian kingdoms. From 
the time when the records of the Old Testament close, for three 
hundred years, the land of Israel was the unresisting prey of the 
different conquerors, in whose path it lay, without an effort to 
vindicate its nationality, or to influence the fortune of those who 
contended for the possession of it. Alexander, and his successors 
in the empire of the East, Seleucus and Ptolemy, marched over it 
repeatedly, bringing it in this quiet manner, by turns, under the 
rising dominion of each new conqueror. Lying in the only direct 
land-route between Syria and Egypt, it was, for a century and a 
half, the chief scene of the bloody wars between the Seleucid and 
the Ptolemaic kings, without being itself actively involved in these 
contests. Both sets of its Macedonian conquerors, wisely regard- 
ing the peculiarities of the Jews, for a long time abstained from 
provoking them by any interference with that strange religion 
which so wonderfully distinguished them from all other nations 
of the world ; and the second Ptolemy even became a patron of 
their faith and their sacred literature. Thus left to the undis- 
turbed, and even promoted, enjoyment of that worship, which was 
the beginning, the end, and the essence of their national being, the 
Jews passed quietly from one foreign sway to another, as the 
fortune of war directed. The latent energies of the Hebrew 
character were, however, at last roused into tremendous and irre- 
sistible action, by the folly of one of its Syrian conquerors, who 
forgot the prudence of his predecessors so far as to attempt the 
introduction of Grecian idolatry in the place of the pure worship 
of the God of Abraham. The innovation almost immediately set 
the whole land in a blaze of rebellion, and the indignant spirit of 
Jewish patriotism, not yet wholly disembodied, though so long 
slumbering, broke forth first in the persons of the Maccabean 
brothers, who, after leading the hosts of Judah to conquest, and 
establishing the independence of their nation against both Syrians 
and Egyptians, received in succession the highest military, civil, 
and religious dominion, as the just reward of their heroism. The 
grateful people, after their fall in the battles of their national 
freedom, yielded the heritage of that nobly-earned dominion to 
the undeserving and degenerate descendents of the second of the 






THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 35 

brothers : but the inheritance of a power now made both regal 
and sacerdotal, was not accompanied and sustained by the virtue 
of the founders of the line. The Asamonean kings were a race 
of assassins and tyrants ; and to such a state did they bring the 
country by their family quarrels, and the wars that rose out of 
them, that their sway became a greater curse to the Jews than 
any foreign yoke that had left them the exercise of their religion. 
While the momentarily renewed glories of Judah were falling 
thus to decay and disgrace, under the degenerate Asamoneans, the 
eastward course of Roman conquest was sweeping through Asia, 
and had already subjugated all the Hellenic kingdoms north of 
Palestine. Pompey, on completing the conquest of Armenia, next 
turned his eyes southward, to the little kingdom which lay in his 
route to Egypt ; and before he could execute or contrive a scheme 
for securing so easy a triumph, the dissensions of two rival princes 
summoned him as the arbiter of their quarrel for the throne ; and 
in conformity with the ever-active Roman policy of fostering 
internal strife in foreign nations, — a policy which won them 
almost as many kingdoms as did their warlike genius, — Pompey 
instantly seized the fortunate occasion to enter Palestine with an 
army, to support his arbitration, and from that moment the country 
became an inseparable appendage of the Roman empire. The 
quarrel was decided by depriving both the brothers of the royal 
power, and, thenceforth, the contests among the princes consisted 
in intrigues for a tributary throne. The feeble and unfortunate 
Asamoneans, were, however, soon surpassed in this base contest, 
by a new set of competitors, from the house of Antipater, a Jew 
of obscure family, but of aspiring genius, whose ambitious intrigues 
prepared the way for the final triumph of his son Herod, over 
the last of the descendents of the Maccabees. In the successive 
contests between Pompey, Caesar, Cassius, Antony, and Octavius, 
the aspiring Herod, by a wonderful combination of art, boldness, 
cruelty, and good fortune, managed to keep such a hold on the 
supreme regard of each of these various arbiters of his destiny, 
that, through all the bloody changes which distracted every part 
of the Roman world, his power and honors steadily accumulated 
over all obstacles, till, at last, the triumphant establishment of 
Augustus became coincident with the equally solid confirmation 
of Herod as the absolute sovran of all Palestine, over which he 
thenceforth reigned to his death, with only a nominal subjection to 
the empire of Rome, — a connexion, by which he insured the 



36 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

perfect security of his throne, without, in the slightest degree, im- 
pairing his real power. This was the great Herod, who ruled 
Judea at the time of the birth of Christ, and this was the peculiar 
political character of that country, — between a province and a 
free state. The death of the great Herod did not at first mate- 
rially change the peculiar relation which his dominions bore to 
the great centre of empire. The authority of the Caesar was 
only invoked and exerted, to sanction the disposition which he 
made of his kingdom in his will ; but though the apportionment 
of the different sections among his favored sons, left all parts of 
Palestine the character of kingdoms, and not of provinces, still 
the independence and power of the whole was somewhat affected 
by this division. The dominions of the great Herod included all 
the region between the sea and Desert Arabia, limited north by 
Syria proper, and south by Rocky Arabia, — being in length one 
hundred and fifty miles, and in breadth seventy. By his testa- 
mentary apportionment, three grand divisions were made of this 
territory ; — the southern section, consisting of Judea proper, Sa- 
maria, and Idumea, was given to Archelaus, his oldest surviving 
son, with the title of king ; the northeastern section, consisting 
of all east of Lake Gennesaret and the Jordan north of it, (Gau- 
lanitis, Batanea, Iturea, Trachonitis, and Panias,) was given to 
Philip, his next son, with the title of tetrarch ; and the remaining 
section, — consisting of all Galilee proper, and of Peraea, or the 
region which lay east of the Jordan, from its mouth to lake Gen- 
nesaret, — was given to Antipas, his youngest son, with the title of 
tetrarch. This political division of the geography of Palestine 
deserves particular attention from the reader, connected as it is 
with many important points in the gospel narrative. The only 
essential change made in it, during the life of Jesus, was in the 
southern section, which, on the deserved expulsion of the feeble 
Archelaus, after ten years' reign, was converted into a Roman 
province ; — the holiest portion of Palestine thus losing first the 
forms of an independency, and submitting to the sway of an em- 
peror's procurator. Later political changes in this and the other 
sections, will be particularly noticed in those parts of the apostolic 
narrative with which they are connected. 

The religious condition of Palestine, in the apostolic age, 
equally deserves notice, involved as it was in the whole scheme, 
scope, and history of the apostolic work. All the opposition which 
the gospel first met, arose from causes connected with the previous 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 37 

state of sects and opinions among those to whom it was first 
preached; for though the worldly ambition and the political 
jealousy of those who were then great in Israel, was the instant 
motive of this opposition, the origin of these dark feelings was in 
the peculiar religious government of the Jewish nation, making the 
jealous few the sole depositaries of spiritual power. 

For five hundred years, the voice of inspiration had been silent. 
The harp of prophecy slept with Malachi, at the rearing of the 
second temple ; and thenceforth the people of God's peculiar care 
were left to the teachings of the written word only, as set forth 
by the interpretations of human wisdom and learning. Soon the 
spirits of improving and refining generations began to rise, in 
longings after more systematic and complex doctrines than the 
simpler minds of the immediate hearers of the prophets had aspired 
to find in the bare and honest testimony of original inspiration. 
The ages of inspiration were not the ages of remarkable intel- 
lectual refinement ; the Israelites were, from the conquest of 
Canaan to the Chaldean captivity, in a state of semi-barbarism ; — 
the great mass of the people being wrapped in the enjoyments of 
a mere animal existence, while here and there rose from among 
them, teachers, of an order so much above the genius of the 
nation and the age, that the heavenly source of their inspiration 
was most effectually proved, in their exaltation above the bar- 
barism of their times. Still, the teachings of the prophets were 
of necessity accommodated to the rude character of their hearers, 
as far as the motives to the obedience of the truth were concerned. 
Their warnings, their denunciations, their promises, and their 
blessings, all referred to the circumstances of the present life ; and 
no joy or pain beyond the grave was imaged to the mind of the 
Israelite by his inspired teachers, in enjoining the practice of 
virtue, the preservation of a religion pure from the pollutions of 
idolatry, or the observance of the law of God, as revealed by 
Moses. The progress of refinement, in the course of succeeding 
ages, brought the Jewish nation into an intellectual elevation so 
far above their previous condition, that their improved moral per- 
ceptions soon moved them with an instinctive sense of the incom- 
pleteness of the revelation of the truth by the holy men who had 
spoken of old as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The 
Chaldean, the Persian, and the Macedonian dominion over Pales- 
tine, all tended to this result. The influence of oriental and of 
Grecian philosophy thus made itself manifest in the modifications 



38 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

of ancient Jewish faith, and in the large additions which were soon 
made to ancient opinions. Under the operation of these causes 
arose the first systematic and comprehensive view of the truths 
of religion, — in short, the first Jewish theology. The original 
teachings of inspiration had presented themselves in bursts of 
divine truth, as the spirit gave utterance on occasions of particular 
urgency ; and the volume of the word of God, therefore, appeared 
in the form of a historical series of individual revelations, each 
accommodated to the special emergency that called it forth, — no 
one in particular pretending to give a complete system of religion, 
and the whole equally far from presenting a regularly arranged 
view of the truths actually revealed. The first theological efforts 
of the Jewish teachers seem to have consisted in a formal deduc- 
tion of the substance and the results of the whole course of the 
records of inspiration. But with these first occasions of the 
application of merely human wisdom, to the modification even of 
the forms of divine things, arose the first essential difference in 
creeds and in systems of religion ; and differences soon originated 
among the intelligent and discerning, on these matters, which soon 
led to the distinct formation and permanent foundation of religious 
sects. A brief view of the essential peculiarities of each of 
those denominations which divided the intelligent portion of the 
Jewish nation, in the apostolic age, will here, also, be of advantage 
to the reader. 

The Pharisees were the sect which had the predominance in 
numbers, in wealth, in learning, and in popular favor. Deriving 
their name from a Hebrew word, which means " separate," their 
grand distinctive characteristic was a complete withdrawal of 
themselves from the pollutions of worldly intercourse with those 
who disregarded the law of Moses ; and they were devoted, by 
profession at least, to the minute observance of the Levitical ritual, 
as well as to the practice of those virtues enjoined in all parts of 
the Hebrew scriptures. They were furthermore characterized by 
a profound reverence for the traditions of the Hebrew Fathers, re- 
ceiving their interpretations of the law, the prophets, and the 
devotional and historical scriptures, as authority decisive above 
appeal, and beyond all that the wisdom of more modern theologians 
could attain. They also professed to abstain from luxurious en- 
joyments, and to follow an entirely virtuous course of life. As to 
theological views, they were predestinarians, though not fatalists, 
— believing that the eternal decrees of God, and the free agency 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. 39 

of man, were so arranged and harmonized, that every human 
being was left to his own choice between right and wrong. They 
believed also in the immortality of the soul, in a future state, 
differing according to its moral deserts in this life, — the wicked 
being condemned to eternal imprisonment in hell, while the good 
were rewarded by the liberty of returning to life, at pleasure. 
These doctrines were, throughout, so acceptable to the people, 
that, in the apostolic age, the Pharisees were supreme in public 
favor, and by popular consent were made the guardians of the 
purity of the national religion, the directors of the ritual worship, 
and the authorized interpreters of the law. . Such were their high 
professions of doctrinal orthodoxy, and devotional purity; but, 
alas ! that in all ages, and in all similar circumstances, ultra-reli- 
gionists should be the same ! These solemn pretensions, so im- 
posing to the public eye, were but a hypocritical covering of the 
most narrow-minded bigotry and sectarianism, " compassing sea 
and land to make one proselyte," — of the most complete devotion 
to wealth, " devouring widows' houses, and for an atoning pretext, 
making long prayers, and giving alms in the synagogues, and in 
the corners of the streets," — of the most heartless and chilling 
formality, " paying tithe of mint, anise, and cummin," — observing 
all the external requisitions of the written law, and of conventional 
religious usage, but " omitting the weightier matters of the law, 
judgment, mercy, and faith." All these, and numerous other 
equally bitter testimonies, are borne against them by the indignant 
denunciations of him whose " word was truth ;" and who can 
doubt the justice of the description ? The picture drawn of the 
real practices of this sect in the gospel history, contrasted with 
the favorable representation of their creed and professions given 
by the Jewish historian, is so often justified by parallel instances 
of human depravity perverting the purity of religious truth, as to 
find a faithful comment in the observation of every discerning 
reader. The Pharisees were men whose glory was — the most 
perfect orthodoxy in doctrine, the most ancient authority in theo- 
logical views, the most devout and painful observance of rituals 
of public and private worship, the most regular and set obedience 
to the scriptural injunctions of charity and alms-giving ; they shut 
up the kingdom of heaven against all who did not conform to 
their ideal standard of doctrinal correctness, though, themselves 
excluded by the same test ; they hung their hopes for life and for 
death, for time and for eternity, on forms and creeds, on doctrines 



40 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

and observances, on blamelessness of faith, and on conformity to 
the very letter of the divine law ; the voice of an admiring reli- 
gious public uttered the loud approval of their perfection ; and yet 
the sentence of the Supreme Judge of all the world denounced 
against them the assurance of a damnation as pre-eminent as 
their professions. 

The Sadducees were most prominently characterized by their 
negative peculiarities of belief. They rejected all the traditions 
which the Pharisees had added to the Old Testament, and by 
which they had, in too many instances, " made the law of no 
effect." They denied even the more noble doctrines inculcated 
by the Pharisaic teachers, — the resurrection of the dead, the exist- 
ence of the soul after death, the future retribution of the deeds of 
this life, the reality of spiritual beings, whether angels or demons, 
the predestination of events, and the providence of God. All 
these they rejected as mere human inventions, and as unau- 
thorized intermixtures of foreign doctrines, unknown to the 
inspired writers. The law of Moses and the prophetic scriptures 
were all that they received as the true word of God ; and these 
they maintained to be complete in doctrine and in moral precept, 
containing the whole duty of man. Their grand aim was the 
observance of a blameless morality, rather than the attainment of 
a complex system of theological belief; and the name of the sect, 
derived from a Hebrew word, which means " just," or " right- 
eous," was a fair expression of the sort of excellence which they 
professed to seek, — a moral rather than a theological perfection. 
In the pursuit of the truth, they were characterized by great 
freedom of investigation, and a total disregard of dogmatic au- 
thorities, whether ancient or modern ; and they are mentioned as 
manifesting an equal freedom of discussion among themselves, 
" accounting it noble to dispute even the teachers of the doctrines 
of their sect." This skeptical character acquired them such a 
reputation for contempt of popular notions, and predominant 
systems of belief, that the general voice of the Jewish world was 
against them; and the select few, all of high rank and aristocratic 
families, who held this odious faith, were obliged by the force of 
public opinion to conform, in externals, to the Pharisaic doctrine, 
keeping their peculiarities within the limits of their own schools. 
They had, however, much power in the great national council of 
religion, and, for a long period, the highest sacerdotal offices 
almost entirely devolved on members of their sect. This power 



THE APOSTOLIC WORLD. £i 

in the administration of law, they were very strict and harsh in 
using, being much more disposed to cruel and bloody measures 
than were the Pharisees, who were, on the contrary, distinguished 
for their comparative leniency in judicial proceedings, and for 
their general abhorrence of blood and capital punishments. 

The root of the name Pharisee is the Hebrew word wis (pliarasJi,) — " separated." 
The name Sadducee is considered to be most justly derived from p-np (tsaddik,) — 
" righteous" though some of the later Pharisaical Rabbins deny the rival sect so 
honorable an etymon, and pretend to derive the word from the name of the supposed 
founder, Sadoc ; — an assertion without proof or reason. 

The authorities of this account of these two sects are the statements of Josephus, 
in different parts of his works, where he gives incidental notices of both Pharisees 
and Sadducees. (Ant. XIII. v. 9, and x. 6. XVIII. i. 3, 4.— War, II. ix. 14.) 

These two great sects were all that came distinctly in the way 
of Jesus Christ and his apostles, in their evangelizing work. Other 
sects did, however, exist at that time ; but so limited in numbers, 
permanency, and locality, that they receive only an incidental 
mention in the gospel and apostolic history, or are entirely unno- 
ticed. The Essenes, the third great sect, were a very peculiar 
people, living in a sort of monastic condition, and constituting 
isolated communities, — characterized by singularities of conduct 
also, as remarkable as their mode of life. They believed in the 
immortality of the soul, and the certain, immutable predestination 
of all events, the eternal punishment of the wicked, and the 
eternal happiness of the righteous. They were extremely ascetic 
in their habits and observances, devoting themselves wholly to the 
attainment of moral perfection, and to the cultivation of the fa- 
culties of the soul at the expense of bodily enjoyments. Cut off 
as they were from all direct connexion with the world, they are 
no where mentioned in gospel history as involved in the opposi- 
tion to Jesus which arose from the other sects. The Herodians 
were another class of men, of very opposite character, distinguished 
by nothing but a base conformity to the Greek and Roman fashions 
and customs, which had been introduced and encouraged among 
the Jews by the great Herod, who was desirous to polish the 
nation, by the influence of heathen refinements. This sect are 
only incidentally noticed in the gospel history, in a trifling way, 
suited to their insignificant character. Judas, the Gaulanite, 
on the other hand, stirred up some spirits of a ruder order, to a 
bold and furious resistence of all foreign influence and domination. 
This zealot sect was, of course, very brief in its continuance. 
Arising at the time when Judea was taken from Archelaus, and 
first reduced to the condition of a Roman province, they refused 



42 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

to pay taxes to a Roman officer, and resisted by arms ; but the 
very first movement of a Roman legion was sufficient to scatter 
the rebellious host, and leave* them hardly a name. 

Thus had the chosen people of God, during the long with- 
drawal of the personal teachings of inspiration, been left to the 
various devices by which human wisdom sought to supply that 
new light, which their increasing refinement and progressive in- 
tellectual exaltation led them to seek. The incompleteness of the 
ancient revelation was instinctively felt ; but how far were their 
noblest efforts from that heavenly truth, the conception of which 
could never have entered into the heart of man, and which could 
be made known only from the divine source of original inspiration ! 
The scheme of redemption required a means of communication 
worthy of the character of the work, and therefore the Son of 
God was sent to proclaim the mighty truth, not merely in words, 
but by achieving in his own person the glorious work. The 
freshness and simplicity of the doctrine which he taught, though 
most effectually vindicating the purity and divinity of its origin, 
was yet so repulsive to the proud sectaries, that they refused to 
own the authority of one whose teachings aimed at the overthrow 
of all the elaborate systems which the wisdom of ages had reared ; 
and, therefore, the Redeemer turned away from those who aspired 
to a knowledge of the depths of divine mysteries, — from the high, 
the powerful, the wealthy, and the learned, — and sought for the 
instruments of the world's regeneration, in those whose simple and 
unsophisticated minds were best prepared by humility and honesty, 
for the reception of truths so humiliating to pride, yet so exalting 
to the spirit of the meek and lowly. From such he chose the 
companions of his travels, of his labors, his watchings, his suf- 
ferings, and his perils, — the witnesses of the most wonderful and 
mysterious manifestations of his glory, — the especial objects of his 
instructions and prayers. Thus prepared, they were sent forth 
to fight the battles of a glorious freedom, — to lead the hosts of a 
pure faith against the intrenched defenders of ancient error, of 
superstitious fear, and wearisome observances. The unsophisti- 
cated mind of the rudely energetic Galilean could best appreciate 
the simple yet perfect beauty of the revelation, which so well at- 
tained and supplied the truth for which the minds of ages had 
vainly toiled ; and therefore of such was the kingdom of heaven. 



THE GALILEAN APOSTLES. 



SIMON CEPHAS, 

COMMONLY CALLED SIMON PETER. 



HIS APOSTOLIC RANK. 

The order in which the names of the apostles are arranged in 
this book, can make little difference in the interest which their 
history will excite in the reader's mind, nor can such an arrange- 
ment, of itself, do much to affect his opinion of their comparative 
merits ; yet, to their biographer, it becomes a matter of some im- 
portance, as well as interest, to show not only authority, but 
reason, for the order in which he ranks them. 

Sufficient authority for placing Simon Cephas first, is found in 
the three lists of the apostles given respectively by Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke, which, though differing as to their arrangement in some 
particulars, entirely agree in giving to this apostle the precedence 
of all. But it would by no means become the earnest and faithful 
searcher into sacred history, to rest satisfied with a bare reference 
to the unerring word, on a point of so much interest. So far 
from it, the strictest reverence for the sacred record both allows 
and urges the inquiry, as to what were the circumstances of Peter's 
life and character, that led the three evangelists thus unanimously 
and decidedly to place him at the head of the sacred band, on all 
whom, in common, rested the commissioned power of doing the 
marvelous works of Jesus, and spreading his gospel in all the 
world. Was this preference the result of mere incidental circum- 
stances, such as age and prior calling ? Or, does it mark a pre- 
eminence of character and qualifications, entitling him to lead and 
rule the apostolic company in the name of Christ, as the com- 
missioned chief of the faithful ? 

The reason of this preference, as far as connected with his 
character, will of course be best shown in the incidents of his life 
and conduct, as detailed in this narrative. But even here, much 
may be brought forward to throw light on the ground of Peter's 



44 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

rank as first of the apostles. It is no more than fair to remark, 
however, that some points of this inquiry have been very deeply, 
and at the same time, very unnecessarily involved in the disputes 
between Protestants and Papists, respecting the original supremacy 
of the church of Rome, as supposed to have been founded or ruled 
by this chief apostle. 

One supposition which has been made to account for Peter's 
priority of station on the apostolic list, is — that he was by birth 
the oldest of the twelve. This assertion, however boldly made 
by some, rests entirely on conjecture, as we have no certain in- 
formation on this point, either from the New Testament or any 
ancient writer of indisputable credit. Those of the early Christian 
writers who allude to this matter, are quite contradictory in their 
statements, some supposing Peter to be the oldest of the apostles, 
and some supposing Andrew to be older than his brother ; — a dis- 
crepancy that may well entitle us to conclude that they had no 
certain information about the matter. The weight of testimony, 
however, seems rather against the assertion that Peter was the 
oldest, inasmuch as the earliest writer who alludes at all to the 
subject, very decidedly pronounces Andrew to have been the older 
brother. Enough, then, is known, to prevent our relying on his 
seniority as the true ground of his precedence. 

The oldest Christian writer, who refers in any way to the comparative age of Peter, 
is Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, as early as A. D. 368. In his great work against 
heresies, (II. i. heresy 51,) in narrating the call of 'Andrew and Peter,' he says, 
"The meeting (with Jesus) happened first to Andrew, Peter being less than him 
in age." (uiKpdTspov oV™? t£ -xpovu Tfjs riXixias.) " But afterwards, when their com- 
plete forsaking of all earthly things is mentioned, Peter takes precedence, since God, 
who sees the turn of all characters, and knows who is fit for the highest places, chose 
Peter as the chief leader (dp%riy6v) of his disciples." This, certainly, is a very distinct 
assertion of Peter's juniority, and is plainly meant to give the idea that Peter's high 
rank among the apostles was due to a superiority of talent, which put him above 
those who were older. 

In favor of the assertion that Peter was older than Andrew, the earliest authority 
that has ever been cited, is John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, about A. D. 
400. This Father, in his homily on Matthew xvii. 27, (Horn. 59,) says that Peter 
was a " first-born son," (rrpwrdroK-os.) In this passage, he is speaking of the tribute 
paid by Jesus and Peter for the expenses of the temple. He supposes that this tribute 
was the redemption money due from the first-born sons of the Jews, for their exemp- 
tion from the duties of the priesthood. But the account of this tax, in Numbers iii. 
44 — 51, shows that this was a tax of Jive shekels apiece, while that spoken of by 
Matthew, is called the didrachmon, a Greek coin, equivalent to a half-shekel. Now 
the half-shekel tax was that paid by every Jew above the age of twenty years, for the 
expenses of the temple service, as is fully described in Ex»odus xxx. 12—16 ; xxxviii. 
26. Josephus also mentions this half-shekel tax, as due from every Jew, for the 
service of the temple. (See Hammond on Matt. xvii. 24.) Chrysostom is therefore 
wholly in the wrong, about the nature of the tax paid by Jesus and Peter, (verse 27, 
" give it for me and thee ;") and the reason which he gives for the pa}mient, (namely, 
that they were both first-born sons,) being disproved, his belief of Peter's seniority 
is shown to be based on an error, and therefore entitled to no credit whatever ; more 
particularly, when opposed to the older authority of Epiphanius. 



SIMON PETER. 45 

Lardner, in support of the opinion that Peter was the oldest, quotes also Cassian 
and Bede ; but it is most manifest that a bare assertion of two writers, who lived, one 
of them 424, and the other 700 years after Christ,— an assertion unsupported by any 
proof whatever, — cannot be received as evidence in the case. The most natural con- 
jecture of any one who was accounting for the eminence of Peter, would be that he 
was older than the brother of whom he takes precedence so uniformly ; and it is no 
more than just to conclude, therefore, that the ground of this notion was but a mere 
guess. But in the case of Epiphanius, besides the respect due to the early authority, 
it is important to observe, that he could have no motive for inventing the notion of 
Andrew's seniority, since the uniform prominence of Peter would most naturally 
suggest the idea that he was the oldest. It is fair to conclude, then, that an opinion, 
so unlikely to be adopted without special proof, must have had the authority of 
uniform early tradition ; for Epiphanius mentions it as if it were a universally ad- 
mitted fact ; nor does he seem to me to have invented the notion of Andrew's seniority, 
to account for his being first known to Jesus, though he mentions these two circum- 
stances in their natural connexion. 

Lardner, moreover, informs us, that Jerome maintains the opinion, that Peter was 
preferred before the other apostles on account of his age. But a reference to the 
original passage, shows that the comparison was only between Peter and John, and 
not betAveen Peter and the rest of the apostles. Speaking of Peter as the constituted 
head of the church, he* says, that was done to avoid dissensions (ut schismaiis tollatur 
occasio.) The question might then arise, why was not John chosen first, being so 
pure and free from connexions that might interfere with apostolic duties 1 (Cur non 
Johannes electus est virgo % Aetati delatum est, quia Petrus senior erat ; ne adhuc 
adolescens ac pene puer progressae aetatis hominibus praeferretur.) " It was out of 
regard to age, because Peter was older (than John ;) nor could one who was yet 
immature, and little more than a boy, be preferred to a man of mature age." The 
passage evidently does not touch the question of Peter's being the oldest of all, nor 
does it contradict, in any way, the opinion that Andrew was older ; as all which 
Jerome says is, merely, that Peter was older than John, — an opinion unquestionably 
accordant with the general voice of all ancient Christian tradition. 

Priority of calling has also been offered as the reason of this 
apparent superiority ; but the minute record given by the evan- 
gelist John, makes it undeniable that Andrew became acquainted 
with Jesus before Peter, and that the eminent disciple was after- 
wards first made known to Jesus by means of his less highly 
honored brother. 

The only reasonable supposition left, then, is, that there was 
an intentional preference of Simon Cephas, on the score of emi- 
nence for genius, zeal, knowledge, prudence, or some other quality 
which fitted him for taking the lead of the chief ministers of the 
Messiah. The word " first ';" which accompanies his name in 
Matthew's list, certainly appears to have some force above the 
mere tautological expression of a fact so very self-evident from 
the collocation, as that he was first on the list. The Bible shows 
not an instance of a list begun in that way, with this emphatic 
word so vainly and unmeaningly applied. The analogies of ex- 
pression in all languages, ancient and modern, .would be very apt 
to lead a common reader to think that the numeral adjective thus 
prefixed, was meant to give the idea that Simon Peter was put 
first for some better reason than mere accident. Any person, in 
giving a list of twelve eminent men, all devoted to a common 



46 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

pursuit, and laboring in one great cause, whose progress he was 
attempting to record, would, in arranging them, if he disregarded 
the circumstance of seniority, very naturally give them place ac- 
cording to their importance in reference to the great subject before 
him. IfJ as in the present case, three different persons should, in 
the course of such a work, make out such a list, an individual 
difference of opinion about a matter of mere personal preference, 
like this, might produce variations in the minor particulars ; but 
where all three united in giving to one and the same person, the 
first and most honorable place, the ordinary presumption would 
unavoidably be, that the prior rank of the person thus distinguished, 
was considered, by them at least, at the time when they wrote, as 
decidedly and indisputably established. The determination of a 
point so trifling, being without any influence on matters of faith 
and doctrine, each evangelist might, without detriment to the 
sanctity and authority of the record which he bears, be left to 
follow his own private opinion as to the most proper principle of 
arrangement to be followed in enumerating the apostles. Thus, 
while it is noticeable that the whole twelve were disposed in six 
pairs, by each of the evangelists, yet the order and succession of 
these is somewhat changed, by different circumstances directing 
the choice of each writer. Matthew modestly puts himself after 
Thomas, with whom he seems, by all the gospel lists, to have 
some close connexion ; but Mark and Luke combine to give Mat- 
thew the precedence, and invert the order by which, through 
unobtrusiveness, he had, as it would seem, robbed true merit of its 
due superiority. And yet these points of precedence were so little 
looked to, that in the first chapter of Acts, Luke makes a new 
arrangement of these names, advancing Thomas to the precedence, 
not only of Matthew, but of Bartholomew, who, in all other places 
where their names are given, is mentioned before him. So also 
Matthew prefers to mention the brothers together, and gives 
Andrew a place immediately after Peter ; although, in so many 
places after, he speaks of Peter, James, and John together, as most 
highly distinguished by Christ, and favored by opportunities of 
beholding him and his works, on occasions when other eyes were 
shut out. Mark, on the contrary, gives these names with more 
strict reference to distinction of rank, and mentions the favored 
trio together, first of all, — making the affinities of birth of less 
consequence than the share of favor enjoyed by each with the 
Messiah. Luke, in his gospel, follows Matthew's arrangement of 



SIMON PETER. 47 

the brothers, but in the first chapter of Acts puts the three great 
apostles first, separating Andrew from his brother, and mentioning 
him after the sons of Zebedee. These changes of arrangement, 
while they show of how little vital importance the order of names 
was considered, yet, by the uniform preservation of Peter in the 
first rank, prove that the exalted pre-eminence of Peter was so 
universally known and acknowledged, that, whatever difference of 
opinion writers might entertain respecting more obscure persons, 
— as to him, no inversion of order could be permitted. 

How far Peter was by this pre-eminence endowed with any 
supremacy over the other apostles, may of course be best shown 
in those places of his history which appear either to maintain or 
question this position. 

That Simon Cephas, or Peter, then, was the first or chief of 
the apostles, appears from the uniform precedence with which his 
name is honored on all occasions in the Scriptures, where the 
order in which names are mentioned could be made to depend on 
rank, — from the universal testimony of the Fathers, — and from the 
general impressions entertained on this point throughout the 
Christian woiJd, in all ages since his time. 

HIS BIRTH. 

From two separate passages in the gospels, we learn that the 
name of the father of Simon Peter was Jonah, but beyond this 
we have no direct information as to his family. From the terms 
in which Peter is frequently mentioned along with the other apos- 
tles, it may be justly inferred, however, that he was from the 
lowest order of society, — which also appears from the business to 
which he devoted his life, before he received the summons that 
sent him forth to the world, on a far higher errand. Of such a 
humble family, he was born at Bethsaida, in Galilee, on or near 
the shore of the sea of Galilee, otherwise called lake Tiberias, or 
Gennesaret. Upon this lake he seems to have followed his labo- 
rious and dangerous livelihood, which very probably, in accord- 
ance with the hereditary succession of trades, common among 
the Jews, was the occupation of his father and ancestors before 
him. Of the time of his birth, no certain information can be had, 
as those who were able to inform us, were not disposed to set so 
high a value upon ages and dates, as the writers and readers of 
later times. The most reasonable conjecture as to his age, is, that 
he was about the same age with Jesus Christ ; which rests on the 
7 



48 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

circumstances of his being married at the period when he was 
called by Christ, — his being made the object of such high confi- 
dence and honor by his Master, — and the eminent standing which 
he seems to have maintained, from the first, among the apostles. 
Still there is nothing in all these circumstances, that is irrecon- 
cilable with the supposition that he was younger than Christ ; and 
if any reader prefers to suppose the period of his birth so much 
later, there is no important point in his history or character that 
will be affected by such a change of dates. 

Bethsaida. — The name of this place occurs in several passages of gospel history, 
as connected with the scenes of the life of Jesus. (Matt. xi. 21 ; Mark vi. 45, viii. 
22 — 26; Luke xi. 10, x. 13; John i. 45, xii. 21.) The name likewise occurs in the 
writings of Josephus, who describes Bethsaida, and mentions some circumstances of 
its history. The common impression among the New Testament commentators has 
been, that the Bethsaida which is so often mentioned in the gospels, was on the western 
shore of lake Gennesaret, near the other cities which were the scenes of important 
events in the life of Jesus. Yet TFosephus distinctly implies that Bethsaida was 
situated on the eastern shore of the lake, as he says that it was built by Philip the 
tetrarch, in Lower Gaulanitis, (Jewish War, book II. chapter ix. section 1,) which 
was on the eastern side of the Jordan and the lake, though not in Peraea, as Light- 
foot rather hastily assumes ; for Peraea, though by its derivation (from nipav, peran, 
" beyond,") meaning simply " what was beyond " the river, yet was, in the geography 
of Palestine, applied to only that portion of the country east of Jordan, which extends 
from Moab on the south, northward, to Pella, on the Jabbok. (Josephus, Jewish 
War, book III. chap. iii. sect. 3.) Another point in which the account given by Jose- 
phus differs from that in the gospels, is — that while Josephus places Bethsaida in 
Gaulanitis, John (xii. 21) speaks of it distinctly as a city of Galilee, and Peter, as 
well as others born in Bethsaida, is called a Galilean. These two apparent disagree- 
ments have led many eminent writers to conclude that there were on and near the 
lake, two wholly different places bearing the name of Bethsaida. Schleusner. Bretsch- 
neider, Fischer, Pococke, Reland, Michaelis, Kuinoel, Rosenmliller, Fritzsche, and 
others, have maintained this opinion. But Lightfoot, Cave, Calmet, Baillet, Mac- 
knight, Wells, and others, have decided that these differences can be perfectly recon- 
ciled, and all the circumstances related in the gospels made to agree with Josephus's 
account of the situation of Bethsaida. 

The first passage in which Josephus mentions this place, is in his Jewish Anti- 
quities, (XVIII. ii. 1.) " And he, (Philip,) having granted to the village of Beth- 
saida, near the lake of Gennesaret, the rank of a city, by increasing its population, 
and giving it importance in other ways, called it by the name of Julia, the daughter 
of Caesar," (Augustus.) In his History of the Jewish War, (II. ix. 1,) he also alludes 
to it in a similar connexion. Speaking, as in the former passage, of the cities built 
by Herod and Philip in their tetrarchies, he says, " The latter built Julias, in Lower 
Gaulanitis." In the same history, (III. ix. 7,) describing the course of the Jordan, 
he alludes to this city. " Passing on (from lake Semechonitis) one hundred and 
twenty furlongs farther, to the city Julias, it flows through the middle of Lake Gen- 
nesar." In this passage I translate the preposition ^ra (raeta) by the English " to" 
though Hudson, Havercamp, and Oberthlir express it in Latin by " post," and Mac- 
knight by the English " behind." Whiston translates it still more freely, " by Beth- 
saida." (III. x. 7, of his division, which differs from that of Hudson, which is 
generally followed in these references in this book.) Lightfoot very freely renders 
it " ante ;" but with all these great authorities against me, I have the satisfaction of 
finding my translation supported by the antique English version of the quaint Thomas 
Lodge, who distinctly expresses the preposition in this passage by " unto." This 
translation of the word is in strict accordance with the rule that this Greek preposi- 
tion, when it comes before the accusative after a verb of motion, has the force of 
" to" or " against." (See Jones's Lexicon, sub voc. juera; also Hederici Lex.) But 
in such connexions, it never has the meaning of " behind" given to it by Mac- 
knight; nor of "post" in Latin, as in Hudson and Havercamp; still less of " ante," 



SIMON PETER. 49 

as Lightfoot very queerly expresses it. The passage, then, simply means, that the 
Jordan, after passing out of lake Semechonitis, flows one hundred and twenty fur- 
longs to the city of Julias or Bethsaida, (not behind it, nor before it,) and there enters 
lake Gennesar ; the whole expressing as clearly as may be, that Julias stood on the 
river just where it widens into the lake. That Julias stood on the Jordan, and not 
' on the lake, though near it, is made further manifest, by a remark made by Josephus, 
in his memoirs of his own life. He, when holding a military command in the 
region around the lake, during the war against the Romans, on one occasion sent 
against the enemy a detachment of soldiers, who " encamped near the river Jordan, 
about a furlong from Julias." (Life of Josephus, sect. 72.) 

It should be remarked, moreover, that, at the same time when Philip enlarged 
Bethsaida, in this manner, and gave it the name of Julia, the daughter of Augustus 
Caesar, his brother Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, with a similar 
ambition to exalt his own glory, and secure the favor of the imperial family, rebuilt 
a city in his dominions, named Betharamphtha, to which he gave the name Julias 
also ; but in honor, not of the daughter, but of the wife of Augustus, who bore the 
family name, Julia, which passed from her to her daughter. This multiplication of 
namesake towns, has only created new confusion for us ; for the learned Lightfoot, 
in his Chorographic century on Matthew, has unfortunately taken this for the Julias 
which stood on the Jordan, at its entrance into the lake, and accordingly applies to 
Julias-Betharamphtha, the last two quotations from Josephus, given above, which I 
have applied to Julias-Bethsaida. But it would seem as if this most profound Biblical 
scholar was certainly in the wrong here ; since Julias-Betharamphtha must have been 
built by Herod Antipas within his own dominions, that is, in Galilee proper, or 
Peraea proper, as already bounded ; and Josephus expressly says that this Julias was 
in Peraea; yet Lightfoot, in his rude little wood-cut map, (Horae Heb. et Talm. in 
Mar., Decas Chorog. cap. v.) has put this in Gaulanitis, far north of its true place, at 
the influx of the Jordan into the lake, (" ad ipsissimum influxum Jordanis in lacum 
Gennesariticum,") and Julias-Bethsaida, also in Gaulanitis, some miles lower down, 
at the south-east corner of the lake, a position adopted by no other writer that I 
know of. This peculiarity in Lightfoot's views, I have thus stated at length, that 
those who may refer to his Horae for more light, might not suppose a confusion in 
my statement, which does not exist ; for since the Julias-Betharamphtha of Herod 
could not have been in Gaulanitis, but in Peraea, the Julias at the influx of the Jordan 
into the lake, must have been the Bethsaida embellished by Philip, tetrarch of Iturea 
and Trachonitis, (Luke iii. 1,) which included Gaulanitis, Batanea, &c. east of Jor- 
dan and the lake, and north of Peraea proper. The substance of Josephus's informa- 
tion on this point, is, therefore, that Bethsaida stood on the eastern side of the Jordan, 
just where it enters lake Gennesar, or Gennesaret, (otherwise called lake Tiberias 
and the sea of Galilee,) — that it stood in the province of Gaulanitis, within the do- 
minions of Philip, son of Herod the Great, and tetrarch of all that portion of Pales- 
tine, which lies north of Peraea, on the east of Jordan and the lake, as well as of 
the region north of Galilee, (his tetrarchy forming a sort of crescent,) — that this 
prince, having enlarged and embellished Bethsaida, raised it from a village to the 
rank of a city, by the name of Julias, in honor of Julia, daughter of Augustus Caesar. 
This was done during the reign of Augustus, (Josephus, in Jew. Ant. XVIII. ii. 1,) 
and of course long before Jesus Christ began his labors, though after his birth, because 
it was after the death of Herod the Great. 

The question now is — whether the Bethsaida mentioned by the evangelists is by 
them so described as to be in any way inconsistent with the account given by Jose- 
phus, of the place to which he gives that name. The first difficulty which has pre- 
sented itself to the critical commentators, on this point, is the fact, that the Bethsaida 
of the gospels is declared in them to have been a city of Galilee, (John xii. 21,) and 
those who were born and brought up in it are called Galileans, (Mark xiv. 70, Luke 
xxii. 59, Acts i. 7, ii. 7.) Yet Josephus expressly tells us, that Bethsaida was in 
Gaulanitis, which was not in Galilee, as he bounds it, but was beyond its eastern 
boundary, on the eastern side of the river and lake. (Ant. XVIII. ii. 1 : — "War, III. 
iii. 1.) This is therefore considered by many, as a diversity between the two accounts, 
which must make it impossible to apply them both to the same place. But there is no 
necessity for such a conclusion. The different application of the term Galilee, in the 
two books, must be noticed, in order to avoid confusion. Josephus is very exact in the 
use of names of places and regions, defining geographical positions and boundaries 
with a particularity truly admirable. Thus, in mentioning the political divisions of 
Palestine, he gives the precise limits of each, and uses their names, not in the loose, 



50 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

popular way, but, generally, in his own accurate sense. But the gospel writers are 
characterized by no such minute particularity, in the use of names, which they gene- 
rally apply in the popular, rather than the exact sense. Thus, in this case, they use 
the term Galilee, in what seems to have been its common meaning in Judea, as a name 
for all the region north of Samaria and Peraea, on both sides of the Jordan, including, 
of course, Gaulanitis and all the dominions of Philip. The difference between them 
and Josephus, on this point, is very satisfactorily shown in another passage. In Acts 
v. 37, Gamaliel, speaking of several persons who had at different times disturbed 
the peace of the nation, mentions one Judas, the Galilean, as a famous rebel. Now this 
same person is very particularly described by Josephus, (in his Jewish Antiquities, 
XVIII. i. 1 and 6. Hudson, Oberthur, and Wkislon : also, in his Jewish War, II. viii. 
1,) in such a manner, as to show his identity with the person mentioned by Gamaliel. 
Now Josephus calls him in the two last quoted passages, — " Judas the Galilean;" but, 
in the first, mentions him distinctly as " Judas the Gaulanite," and, particularizing the 
place of his birth, declares him to have been from the city of Gamala, in Gaulanitis, 
which was east of Jordan and the lake. This shows that Josephus, as well as the New 
Testament writers, applied the name Galilee to the region on both sides of the lake. 
The people of southern Palestine called the whole northern section Galilee, and all 
its inhabitants, Galileans, without attending to the nicer political and geographical 
distinctions ; just as the inhabitants of the southern section of the United States, high 
and low, call every stranger a Yankee, who is from any part of the country north of 
Mason and Dixon's line, though well-informed people perfectly well know, that the 
classic and not despicable name of Yankee belongs fairly and truly to the ingenious 
sons of New England alone, who have made their long-established sectional title so 
synonymous with acuteness and energy, that whenever an enterprising northerner 
pushes his way southward, he shares in the honors of this gentle appellative. Just 
in the same vague and careless way, did the Jews apply the name Galilean to all the 
energetic active northerners, who made themselves known in Jerusalem, either by 
their presence or their fame ; and thus both Judas of Gaulanitis, and those apostles 
who were from the eastern side of the river, were called Galileans, as well as those 
on the west, in Galilee proper. Besides, in the case of Bethsaida, which was imme- 
diately on the line between Galilee and Gaulanitis, it was still more natural to refer 
it to the larger section on the w r est, with many of whose cities it was closely con- 
nected. Moreover, that the Jews considered Galilee as extending beyond Jordan, 
seems clear from Isaiah ix. 1, where the prophet plainly speaks of " Galilee of the 
nations, as being by the side of the sea, beyond Jordan." This was the ancient Jewish 
idea of the country designated by this name, and the limitation of it to the west of 
Jordan, was a mere late term introduced by the Romans, and apparently never used 
by the Jews of the gospel times, except when speaking of the political divisions of 
Palestine. The name Gaulanitis, which is the proper term for the province in 
which Bethsaida was, never occurs in the Bible. (Kuinoel, Rosenmuller, &c. give 
a different view, however, of " beyond Jordan," on Matt. iv. 15.) 

But a still more important difficulty has been suggested, in reference to the identity 
of the place described by Josephus, with that mentioned in the gospels. This is, the 
fact, that in the gospels it is spoken of in such a connexion, as would seem to require 
its location on the western side. A common, but very idle argument, in favor of this 
supposition, is, that Bethsaida is mentioned frequently along with Capernaum and 
other cities of Galilee proper, in such immediate connexion as to make it probable 
that it was on the same side of the river and lake with them. But places separated 
merely by a river, or at most by a narrow lake, whose greatest breadth was only five 
miles, could not be considered distant from each other, and would very naturally be 
spoken of as near neighbors. The most weighty argument, however, rests on a 
passage in Mark vi. 45, where it is said that Jesus constrained his disciples to " get 
into a vessel, to go before him to the other side unto Bethsaida," after the five thou- 
sand had been fed. Now the parallel passage in John vi. 17, says that they, following 
this direction, " went over the sea towards Capernaum," and that when they reached 
the shore, " they came into the land of Gennesaret," both which are understood to be 
on the western side. But, on the other hand, we are distinctly told by Luke, (ix. 10,) 
that the five thousand were fed in " a desert place, belonging to (or near) the city 
which is called Bethsaida." On connecting these two passages, therefore, (in John 
and Mark,) according to the common version, the disciples sailed from Bethsaida on 
one side, to Bethsaida on the other, a construction which has been actually adopted 
by those who maintain the existence of two cities of the same name on different sides 
of the lake. But what common reader is willing to believe that in this passage, Luke 



SIMON PETER. 51 

refers to a place totally different from the one meant in all other passages where the 
name occurs, and more particularly in the very next chapter, (x. 13,) where he speaks 
of the Bethsaida Which had been frequented before by Jesus, without a word of ex- 
planation to show that it was a different place 1 But in the expression, " to go before 
him to the other side, to Bethsaida," the word " to," may be shown, by a reference 
to the Greek, to convey an erroneous idea of the situation of the places. The preposi- 
tion Trjsof, (pros,) may have, not merely the sense of to, with the idea of motion to- 
wards a place, but in some passages even of Mark's gospel, may be most justly trans- 
lated " near, 1 ' or " before" (as in ii. 2, " not even about" or before " the door," and in 
xi. 4, " tied by" or before " the door.") This is the meaning which seems to be jus- 
tified by the collocation here, and the meaning in which I am happy to find myself 
supported by the acute and accurate Wahl, in his Clavis Nov. Test, under npdg, which 
he translates in this passage by the Latin juxla, prope ad ; and the German bey, that 
is, " by," " near to," a meaning supported by the passage in Herodotus, to which he 
refers, as well as by those from Mark himself, which are given above, from Schleus- 
ner's references under this word, (definition 7.) Scott, in order to reconcile the 
difficulties which he saw in the common version, has, in his marginal references, 
suggested the meaning of " over against," a rendering, which undoubtedly expresses 
correctly the relations of objects in this place, and one, perhaps, not wholly incon- 
sistent with Schleusner's 7th definition, which is in Latin, ante, or "before;" since 
what was before Bethsaida, as one looked from that place across the river, was cer- 
tainly opposite to that city. I had thought of this meaning as a desirable one in this 
passage, but had rejected it, before I saw it in Scott, for the reason, that this exact 
meaning is not in any lexicon, nor was there any other passage in Greek, in which 
this could be distinctly recognized as the proper one. The propriety of the term, 
however, is also noticed, in the note on this passage in the great French Bible, with 
notes by Calmet and others. (Sainte Bible en Latin et Francois avec des notes, 
&c. Vol. xiv. p. 263, note.) It is there expressed by " l'autre cote du lac, vis-a-vis 
Bethsaida : c. a. d. sur le bord occidental oppose a la ville Bethsaide que etait sur le 
bord oriental ;" a meaning undoubtedly geographically correct, but not grammatically 
exact, and I therefore prefer to take "' near," as the sense which both reconciles the 
geographical difficulties, and accords with the established principles of lexicog- 
raphy. 

After all, the sense " to " is not needed in this passage, to direct the action of the 
verb of motion (npodyeiv, proagein, " go before") to its proper object, since that is pre- 
viously done by the former preposition and substantive, lis to nipav, (eis to peran.) 
That is, when we read " Jesus constrained his disciples to go before him," and the 
question arises in regard to the object towards which the action is directed, " Whither 
did he constrain them to go before him V s the answer is in the words immediately 
succeeding, its to nepav, " to the other side," and in these words the action is com- 
plete; but the mere general direction, " to the other side," was too vague of itself, 
and required some limitation to avoid error ; for the place to which they commonly 
directed their course westward, over the lake, was Capernaum, the home of Jesus, 
and thither they might, on this occasion, be naturally expected to go, as we should 
have concluded they did, if nothing farther was said ; therefore, to fix the point of 
their destination, we are told, in answer to the query, " To what part of the western 
shore were they directed to go 1" — " To that part which was near or opposite to Beth- 
saida." The objection which may arise, that a place on the western side could not 
be very near to Bethsaida on the east, is answered by the fact that this city was sepa- 
rated from the western shore, not by the whole breadth of the lake, but simply by the 
little stream of Jordan, here not more than twenty yards wide, so that a place on the 
opposite side might still be very near the city. And this is what proves the topogra- 
phical justness of the term, " over against," given by Scott, and the French commen- 
tator ; since a place not directly across or opposite, but down the western shore, in a 
southwesterly direction, as Capernaum was, would not be very near Bethsaida, nor 
much less than five miles off. Thus is shown a beautiful mutual illustration of the 
literal and liberal translations of the word. 

Macknight ably answers another argument, which has been offered to defend the 
location of Bethsaida on the western shore, founded on John vi. 23. " There came 
other boats from Tiberias, nigh unto the place where they did eat bread," as if Tibe- 
rias had been near the desert of Bethsaida, and consequently near Bethsaida itself. 
" But," as Macknight remarks, " the original, rightly pointed, imports only, that boats 
from Tiberias came into some creek or bay, nigh unto the place where they did eat 
bread." Besides, it should be remembered that the object of those who came in the 



52 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

boats, was to find Jesus, whom they expected to find " nigh the place where they ate 
bread," as the context shows ; so that these words refer to their destination, and not to 
the place from which they came. Tiberias was down the lake, at the southwestern 
corner of it, and I know of no geographer who has put Bethsaida more than half-way- 
down, even on the western shore. The difference, therefore, between the distance 
to Bethsaida on the west and to Bethsaida on the east, could not be at most above a 
mile or two, a matter not to be appreciated in a voyage of sixteen miles, from Tibe- 
rias, which cannot be said to be near Bethsaida, in any position of the latter that has 
ever been thought of. The objection, of course, is not offered at all by those who 
suppose two Bethsaidas mentioned in the gospels, and grant that the passage in Luke 
ix. 10, refers to the eastern one, where they suppose the place of eating bread to have 
been ; but others, who have imagined only one Bethsaida, and that on the western 
side, have proposed this argument; and to such the reply is directed. 

For all these reasons, topographical, historical, and grammatical, the conclusion of 
the whole matter is— that there was but one Bethsaida, the same place being meant 
by that name in all passages in the gospels and in Josephus — that this place stood 
within the verge of Lower Gaulanitis, on the bank of the Jordan, just where it passes 
into the lake — that it was in the dominions of Philip the tetrarch, at the time when it 
is mentioned in the gospels, and afterwards was included in the kingdom of Agrippa 
— that its original Hebrew name (from no beth, " house" and ms, tsedah, "hunting 
or fishing" " a house of fishing," no doubt so called from the common pursuit of its 
inhabitants) was changed by Philip into Julias, by which name it was known to 
Greeks and Romans. By this view, we avoid the undesirable notion, that there are 
two totally different places thus named in two succeeding chapters of the same gospel, 
without a word of explanation to inform us of the difference, as is usual in cases of 
local synonyms in the New Testament ; and that Josephus describes a place of this 
name, without the slightest hint of the remarkable fact, that there was another place 
of the same name, not half a mile off, directly across the Jordan, in full view of it. 

The discussion of the point has been necessarily protracted to a somewhat tedious 
length ; but if fewer words would have expressed the truth and the reasons for it, it 
should have been briefer ; and probably there is no reader who has endeavored to 
satisfy himself on the position of Bethsaida, in his own Biblical studies, that will not 
feel some gratitude for what light this note may give, on a point where all common 
aids and authorities are in such monstrous confusion. For the various opinions and 
statements on this difficult point, see Schleusner's, Bretschneider's and Wahl's Lexi- 
cons, Lightfoot's Chorographic century and decade, Wetstein's New Testament ^ 
commentary on Matt. iv. 12, Kuinoel, Rosenmiiller, Fritzsche, Macknight, &c. On 
the passages where the name occurs, also the French Commentary above quoted, — 
more especially in Vol. III. Remarques sur le carte geog. sect. 7, p. 357. Paulus's 
" Commentar ueber das Neue Testament," (2d edition, Vol. II. pp. 336—342. " To- 
pographische Erlauterungen.") 

Lake Gennesarct. — This body of water, bearing in the gospels the various names 
of " the sea of Tiberias," and " the sea of Galilee," as well as " the lake of Gennesa- 
ret," is formed like one~or two other smaller ones north of it, by a widening of the 
Jordan, which flows in at the northern end, and passing through the middle, goes out 
at the southern end. On the western side, it was bounded by "Galilee proper, and on 
the east was the lower division of that portion of Iturea, which was called Gaulani- 
tis by the Greeks and Romans, from the ancient city of Golan, (Deut. iv. 43 ; Josh. 
xx. 8, &c.) which stood within its limits. Plin} r (book I. chap. 15) well describes 
the situation and character of the lake. " Where the shape of the valley first allows 
it, the Jordan pours itself into a lake which is most commonly called Genesara, six- ^ 
teen (Roman) miles long, and six broad. It is surrounded by pleasant towns ; on the 
east, it has Julias (Bethsaida) and Hippus ; on the south, Tarichea, by which name 
some call the lake also; on the west, Tiberias with its warm springs." Josephus also 
gives a very clear and ample description. (Jewish War, III. x. 7.) " Lake Gen- 
nesar takes 'its name from the country adjoining it. It is forty furlongs (about five 
or six miles) in width, and one hundred and forty (seventeen or eighteen miles) in 
length ; yet the water is sweet, and very desirable to drink ; for it has its fountain clear 
from swampy thickness, and is therefore quite pure, being bounded on all sides by a 
beach and a sandy shore. It is moreover of a pleasant temperature to drink, being 
warmer than that of a river or a spring, on the one hand, but colder than that which ( 
stands always expanded over a lake. In coldness, indeed, it is not inferior to snow, ' 
when it hasbeen exposed to the air all night, as is the custom with the people of that 
region. In it there are some kinds of fish, different both in appearance and taste, 



SIMON PETER. 53 

from those in other places. The Jordan cuts through the middle of it." He then 
gives a description of the course of the Jordan, ending with the remark quoted in 
the former note, that it enters the lake at the city of Julias. He then describes, in 
glowing terms, the richness and beauty of the country around, from which the lake 
takes its name, — a description too long to be given here ; but the studious reader may 
find it in section eighth of the book and chapter above referred to. The Rabbinical 
writers, too, often refer to the pre-eminent beauty and fertility of this delightful 
region, as is shown in several passages quoted by Lightfoot in his Centuria Choro- 
graphica, cap. 79. The derivation of the name there given from the Rabbins, is 
d^d "oj, ginne sarim, " the gardens of the princes." Thence the name Gennesar. 
They say it was within the lands of the tribe of Naphtali ; it must therefore have 
been on the western side of the lake, which appears also from the fact that it was 
near Tiberias, as we are told on the same authority. It is not mentioned in the Old 
Testament under this name, but the Rabbins assure us, that the place called Ciniie- 
retk, in Joshua xx. 35, Chinneroth in xi. 2, is the same ; and this lake is mentioned 
in xiii. 27, under the name of " the sea of Chinnereth," — " the sea of Chinneroth," 
in xii. 3, &c. This old name may be very justly considered the true source of the 
later one, the change from Kinnereth or Khinnereth, to Gennesareth or Ghennesa- 
reth, being much slighter and more natural than many other variations which can 
be proved to have taken place in popular vocal usage. The fantastical Rabbinical 
etymology may therefore be rejected. 

The best description of the scenery, and present aspect of the lake, which I can 
find, is the following, from Conder's Modern Traveler, Vol. I. (Palestine) a work 
made up with great care from the observations of a great number of intelligent tra- 
velers. 

" The mountains on the«east of Lake Tiberias, come close to its shore, and the 
country on that side has not a very agreeable aspect ; on the west, it has the plain of 
Tiberias, the high ground of the plain of Hutin, or Hottein, the plain of Gennesaret, 
and the foot of those hills by which you ascend to the high mountain of Saphet. To 
the north and south it has a plain country, or valley. There is a current throughout 
the whole breadth of the lake, even to the shore ; and the passage of the Jordan 
through it, is discernible by the smoothness of the surface in that part." Various 
travelers have given a very different account of its general aspect. According to 
Captain Mangles, the land about it has no striking features, and the scenery is alto- 
gether devoid of character. " It appeared," he says, " to particular disadvantage to 
us, after those beautiful lakes we had seen in Switzerland ; but it becomes a very inte- 
resting object, when you consider the frequent allusions to it in the gospel narrative." 
Dr. Clarke, on the contrary, speaks of the uncommon grandeur of this memorable 
scenery. " The lake of Gennesaret," he says, " is surrounded by objects well calcu- 
lated to highten the solemn impression," made by such recollections, and " affords 
one of the most striking prospects in the Holy Land. Speaking of it comparatively, 
it may be described as longer and finer than any of our Cumberland and Westmore- 
land lakes, although perhaps inferior to Loch Lomond. It does not possess the 
vastness of the Lake of" Geneva, although it much resembles it in certain points of 
view. In picturesque beauty, it comes nearest to the Lake of Locarno, in Italy, 
although it is destitute of any thing similar to the islands by which that majestic 
piece of water is adorned. It is inferior in magnitude, and in the hight of its sur- 
rounding mountains, to the Lake Asphaltites." Mr. Buckingham may perhaps be 
considered as having given the most accurate account, and one which reconciles, in 
some degree, the different statements above cited, when, speaking of the lake as seen 
from Tel Hoom, he says, " that its appearance is grand, but that the barren aspect of 
the mountains on each side, and the total absence of wood, give a cast of dullness to 
the picture ; this is increased to melancholy, by the dead calm of its waters, and the 
silence which reigns throughout its whole extent, where not a boat or vessel of any 
kind is to be found." 

The question of Peter's being the oldest son of his father has 
been already alluded to, and decided by the most ancient authority, 
in favor of the opinion that he was younger than Andrew. There 
surely is nothing unparalleled or remarkable in the fact, that the 
younger brother should so transcend the older in ability and emi- 
8 



54 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

nence ; since Scripture history furnishes us with similar instances 
in Jacob, Judah and Joseph, Moses, David, and many others 
throughout the history of the Jews, although that nation generally 
regarded the rights of primogeniture with high reverence. 

HIS INTRODUCTION TO JESUS. 

The earliest passage in the life of Peter, of which any record 
can be found, is given in the first chapter of John's gospel. In 
this, it appears that Peter and Andrew were at Bethabara, a place 
on the eastern bank of the Jordan, probably many miles south 
of their home at Bethsaida, and that they had probably left their 
business for a time, and gone thither, for the sake of hearing and 
seeing John the Baptist, who was then preaching at that place, 
and baptizing the penitent in the Jordan. This great forerunner 
of the Messiah, had already, by his strange habits of life, by his 
fiery eloquence, by his violent and fearless zeal in denouncing the 
spirit of the times, attracted the attention "of the people, of all 
classes, in various and distant parts of Palestine ; and not merely 
of the vulgar and unenlightened portion of society, who are so 
much more susceptible to false impressions in such cases, but even 
of the well-taught followers of the two great learned sects of the 
Jewish faith, whose members flocked to hear his bold and bitter 
condemnation of their precepts and practices. So widely had his 
fame spread, and so important were the results of his doctrine con- 
sidered, that a deputation of priests and Levites was sent to him, 
from Jerusalem, (probably from the Sanhedrim, or grand civil and 
religious council,) to inquire into his character and pretensions. 
No doubt a particular interest was felt in this inquiry, from the 
fact that there was a general expectation abroad at that time, that 
the long-desired restorer of Israel was soon to appear : or as ex- 
pressed by Luke, there were many " who waited for the consolation 
of Israel," and "who in Jerusalem looked for redemption." Luke 
also expressly tells us, that the expectations of the multitude were 
strongly excited, and that " all men mused in their hearts whether 
he were the Christ or not." In the midst of this general notion, 
so flattering, and so tempting to an ambitious man, John vindi- 
cated his honesty and sincerity, by distinctly declaring to the 
multitude, as well as to the deputation, that he was not the Christ, 
and claimed for himself only the comparatively humble name and 
honors of the preparer of the way for the true king of Israel. 
This distinct disavowal, accompanied by the solemn declaration, 



SIMON PETER. 55 

that the true Messiah stood at that moment among them, though 
unknown in his real character, must have aggravated public cu- 
riosity to the highest pitch, and caused the people to await, with 
the most intense anxiety, the nomination of this mysterious king, 
which John might be expected to make. We need not wonder, 
then, at the alacrity and determination with which the two dis- 
ciples of John, who heard this announcement, followed the foot- 
steps of Jesus, with the object of finding the dwelling place of the 
Messiah, or at the deep reverence with which they accosted him, 
giving him at once the highest term of honor which a Jew could 
confer on the wise and good, — "Rabbi," or Teacher ! Nor is it 
surprising that Andrew, after the first day's conversation with 
Jesus, should instantly seek out his beloved and zealous brother, 
and tell him the joyful and exciting news, that they had found the 
Messiah. The mention of this fact was enough for Simon, and 
he suffered himself to be brought at once to Jesus. The salutation 
with which the Redeemer greeted the man who was to be the 
leader of his consecrated host, was strikingly prophetical and full 
of meaning. His first words were the annunciation of his indi- 
vidual and family name, and the application of a new one, by 
which he was afterwards to be distinguished from the many who 
bore his common name. All these names have been supposed to 
imply a deeply curious and interesting meaning. Translating 
them from their supposed original Aramaic forms, the salutation 
will be, " Thou art a hearer, the son of divine grace — thou shalt 
be called a rocky The first of these names (hearer) was a 
common title in use among the Jews, to distinguish those who had 
just offered themselves to the learned, as desiring wisdom in the 
law; and the second was applied to those who, having past the 
first probationary stage of instruction, were ranked as the approved 
and improving disciples of the law, under the hopeful title of 
the " sons of divine grace." The third, which became afterwards 
the distinctive individual name of this apostle, was given, no 
doubt, in reference to the peculiar excellences of his natural 
genius, which seems to be thereby characterized as firm, unim- 
pressible by difficulty, and affording fit materials for the foundation 
of a mighty and lasting superstructure. 

The name Simon, :inar, was a common abridgment of Simeon, siynp, which means 
a hearer, and was a term applied technically as here mentioned. (For proofs and 
illustrations, see Poole's Synopsis and Lightfoot.) The technical meaning of the 
name Jonah, given in the text, is that given by Grotius and Drusius ; but Lightfoot 
rejects this interpretation, because the name Jonah is not fairly derived from nsw, 



56 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

(which is the name corresponding to John,) but is the same with that of the old 
prophet so named, and he is probably right in therefore rejecting this whimsical ety- 
mology and definition. 

The date of the introduction of Peter to Jesus, is very variously given by the differ- 
ent Christian Chronologies. Baronius (Ann. Ecc. Vol. I. p. 94) fixes it, in connexion 
with the baptism of Jesus, in the year of Christ, 31, — of the reign of Tiberius, 15. 
Antonius Pagi, (Crit. Bar. Vol. I. p. 18,) correcting this along with the other Chro- 
nology of Baronius, makes it in the year of Christ, 29, — of the reign of Tiberius, 16. 
Baillet (Vies de Saints, Vol. II., 29 Juin, col. 341)' makes it A. D. 30. Cave (Hist. 
Lit. Vol. I. p. 2) gives the same date. 

With this important event of the introduction of Simon to 
Jesus, and the application of his new and characteristic name, 
the life of Peter, as a follower of Christ, may be fairly said to 
have begun, and from this arises a simple division of the subject, 
into the two great natural portions of his life : first, in his state of 
pupilage and instruction under the prayerful, personal care of his 
devoted Master, during his earthly stay ; and second, of his labors 
in the cause of his murdered and risen Lord, as his preacher and 
successor. These two portions of his life may be properly de- 
nominated his discipleship and his apostleship ; or perhaps 
still better, Peter the learner, and Peter the teacher. 



peter's discipleship. 57 



I. PETER'S DISCIPLESHIP; 

OR, 

PETER THE LEARNER AND FOLLOWER. 

Soon after calling Peter and several of his destined associates, 
Jesus left the banks of the Jordan, where he had first appeared in 
the character of a teacher, and next went forth westward into 
Galilee, in company with several of his newly-chosen disciples, — 
now numbering at least six, — and on the third day from leaving 
the scene of baptism, is mentioned to have been present at a wed- 
ding in Cana, a city of Galilee proper, somewhat nearer to the 
Mediterranean sea than to lake Gennesaret. Of the miracles there 
performed, Peter, as well as the other disciples, was a believing 
and adoring witness. This first manifestation of his great teacher's 
glory sealed his faith in him as the destined restorer of Israel ; he 
" believed in him," but not in the pure, patient spirit, which was 
the essential of a true faith in Christ. It was but the wondering, 
awed belief in a superior power ; and though his eye was struck 
and dazzled into reverence, by this supernatural display, his heart 
was still hardened and hardening in the vain hope of an earthly 
Messiah's triumphs ; and nothing but the careful instructions of 
that great teacher, through the journeys, and toils, and sorrows 
of years, could purify the spirit of Peter for the service to which 
he had been summoned, and which he had accepted with so little 
notion of its nature. 

After this little excursion through western Galilee, Jesus re- 
turned to the cities of the lake, with his disciples and brethren, 
and made his abode for a time in Capernaum, on the northeastern 
shore of Gennesaret. Having received this preliminary initiation 
into the faith and discipleship of Jesus, Peter seems to have re- 
turned to his usual business, toiling for his support, without any 
idea whatever of the manner in which his destiny was connected 
with the wonderful being to whom he had been thus introduced. 
We may justly suppose, indeed, that, being convinced by the testi- 
mony of John, his first religious teacher and his baptizer, and by 
personal conversation with Jesus, of Jhis being the Messiah, he 



58 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

afterwards often came to him, (as his home was near the Savior's,) 
and heard him, and saw some of the miracles done by him. 
Among the disciples of Jesus, Simon and his brother were evi- 
dently numbered, from the time when they received their first 
introduction to him, and were admitted to the honors of an inti- 
mate acquaintance. Still the two brothers had plainly received 
no appointment which produced any essential change in their 
general habits and plans of life ; for they still followed their pre- 
vious calling, quietly and unpretendingly, without seeming to 
suppose, that the new honors attained by them had in any way 
exempted them from the necessity of earning their daily bread by 
the sweat of their brow. To this they devoted themselves, labor- 
ing along the same sea of Galilee, whose waters and shores were 
the witnesses of so many remarkable scenes in the life of Christ. 
Yet their business was not of such a character as to prevent their 
enjoying occasional interviews with their divine master, whose 
residence by the lake, and walks along its shores, must have 
afforded frequent opportunities for cultivating or renewing an 
acquaintance with those engaged on its waters. There is nothing 
in the gospel story inconsistent with the belief, that Jesus met his 
disciples, who were thus occupied, on more occasions than one ; 
and had it been the Bible plan to record all the most interesting 
details of his earthly life, many instructive accounts might, no 
doubt, have been given of the interviews enjoyed by him and his 
destined messengers of grace to the world. But the multiplication 
of such narratives, however interesting the idea of them may now 
seem, would have added no essential doctrine to our knowledge, 
even if they had been so multiplied that, in the hyperbolical 
language of John, the whole world could not contain them ; and 
the necessary result of such an increased number of records, 
would have been a diminished valuation of each. As it is, the 
scripture historical canon secures our high regard and diligent at- 
tention, and careful examination of it, by the very circumstance of 
its brevity, and the wide chasms of the narrative ; — like the mys- 
terious volumes of the Cumaean Sybil, the value of the few, is no 
less than that of the many, the price of each increasing in pro- 
portion as the number of the whole diminishes. Thus in regard 
to this interesting interval of Peter's life, we are left to the indul- 
gence of reasonable conjecture, such as has been here mentioned. 



DISCIPLESHIP. 59 



HIS CALL. 



The next direct account given in the Bible, of any event imme- 
diately concerning him, is found in all the three first gospels. It 
is thought by some, that his father Jonah was now dead ; for there 
is no mention of him, as of Zebedee, when his two sons were 
called. This, however, is only a mere conjecture, and has no 
more certainty than that he had found it convenient to make his 
home elsewhere, or was now so old as to be prevented from sharing 
in this laborious and perilous occupation, or that he had always 
obtained his livelihood in some other way ; though the last suppo- 
sition is much less accordant with the well-known hereditary suc- 
cession of trades, which was sanctioned by almost universal custom 
throughout their nation. However, it appears that if still alive, 
their connexion with him was not such as to hinder them a 
moment in renouncing at once all their former engagements and 
responsibilities, at the summons of Christ. Jesus was at this time 
residing at Capernaum, which is said by Matthew to be by the 
sea-coast^— better translated " shore of the lake f for it is not on the 
coast of the Mediterranean, as our modern use of these terms 
would lead us to suppose, but on the shore of the small inland 
lake Tiberias, or sea of Galilee, as it was called by the Jews, 
who, with their limited notions of geography, did not draw the 
nice distinctions between large and small bodies of water, which 
the more extended knowledge of some other nations of antiquity 
taught them to make. Capernaum was but a few miles from 
Bethsaida, on the other side of the lake, and its nearness would 
often bring Jesus, in his walks, to the places where these fisher- 
men were occupied, in whichever of the two cities they at that 
time resided. On one of these walks, he seems to have given the 
final summons which called the four first of the twelve from their 
humble labors to the high commission of converting the world. 

Capernaum. — Though no one has ever supposed that there were two places bearing 
this name, yet about its locality, as about many other points of sacred topography, 
we find that " doctors disagree," though in this case without any good reason ; for the 
scriptural accounts, though so seldom minute on the situations of places, here give 
us all the particulars of its position, as fully as is desirable or possible. Matthew 
(iv. 13) tells us, that Capernaum was upon " the shore of the lake, on the boundaries 
of Zebulon and Naphtali." A reference to the history of the division of territory 
among these tribes, (Joshua xix.) shows that their possessions did not reach the other 
side of the water, but were bounded on the east by Jordan and the lake, as is fully 
represented in all the maps of Palestine. Thus, it is made manifest, that Capernaum 
must have stood on the western shore of the lake, where the lands of Zebulon and 
Naphtali bordered on each other. Though this boundary line cannot be very accu- 
rately determined, we can still obtain such an approximation, as will enable us to fix 



60 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the position of Capernaum on the northern end of the western side of the lake, where 
most of the maps agree in placing it ; yet some have very strangely put it on the 
eastern side. The maps in the French Bible, before quoted, have set it down at the 
mouth of the Jordan, in the exact place where Josephus has so particularly described 
Bethsaida as placed. Lightfoot has placed it on the west, but near the southern end ; 
and all the common maps differ considerably as to its precise situation, of which 
indeed we can only give a vague conjecture, except that it must have been near the 
northern end. " Dr. Richardson, in passing through the plain of Gennesaret, in- 
quired of the natives whether they knew such a place as Capernaum 1 They imme- 
diately rejoined, ' Cavernahum wa Chorasi ; they are quite near, but in ruins.' This 
evidence sufficiently fixes the proximity of Chorazin to Capernaum, in opposition to 
the opinion that it was on the east side of the lake ; and it is probable that the Gerasi 
of Pococke is the same place, the orthography only being varied, as Dr. Richardson's 
Chorasi." (Conder, Mod. Trav. I.) But no modern civilized traveler ever visited 
the actual site of Capernaum, until American missionary enterprise had sent forth 
Christian ministers to the survey of the moral condition and necessities of the Holy 
Land. The Rev. Pliny Fisk, a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, in journeying through Galilee, on his spiritual errand, did not 
neglect opportunities of examining localities so important in sacred chorography, 
and turned aside during his stay at Tiberias to examine the region around the lake. 
In his journal, Nov. 12, 1823, he sa3 r s, — " I went with our guide, Antoon Baulus, to 
see the ruins of Capernaum, on the shore of the lake, north of Tiberias. One hour's 
ride brought us to an Arab village called Mydool. We then entered a plain," (Gen- 
nesar'?) " which we were an hour in crossing. Then passing a deserted khan, (inn,) 
we entered upon a rough piece of road, and soon came to the ruins of an Arab 
house. A few rods north of it are some ruined walls, but clearly of modern origin. 
After passing a set of mills on a brook, we came to the ruins of Capernaum, at least 
to ruins which now bear that name, in about three hours' ride from Tiberias. Here 
are ruins which are manifestly very ancient. A. part of the wall of one building 
still stands; and many walls appear at the surface of the ground as well as broken 
columns, pedestals, and capitals. These are of hard limestone, like those of Baalbec. 
There are now twenty or thirty Arab huts on the ruins of the old city." (Bond's 
Life of Fisk, p. 346.) No ancient writer mentions Capernaum very distinctly. Jo- 
sephus says, that in the plain of Gennesar there was a remarkable fountain called 
Caphamaum, but mentions no city of that name. (Jew. War, III. x. 8.) He speaks, 
in the history of his own life, (§. 72,) of a village in the neighborhood, called Ke- 
phamome, but its locality is not particularly specified. 

Leaving Nazareth, Jesus had come to Capernaum, at the north- 
western end of the lake, and there made his home. About this 
time, perhaps on occasion of his marriage, Simon had left Beth- 
saida, the city of his birth, and now dwelt in Capernaum, probably 
on account of his wife being of that place, and he may have gone 
into the possession of a house, inherited by his marriage ; — a sup- 
position that would agree with the circumstance of the residence of 
his wife's mother in her married daughter's family, which would 
not be so easily explainable on the supposition that she had also 
sons to inherit their father's property, and furnish a home to their 
mother. It has also been suggested, that he probably removed to 
Capernaum after his introduction to Christ, in order to enjoy his 
instructions more conveniently, being near him. This motive 
would no doubt have had some weight. Here the two brothers 
dwelt together in one house, which makes it almost certain that 
Andrew was unmarried ; for the peculiarity of eastern manners 
would hardly have permitted the existence of two families, two 






61 

husbands, two wives, in the same domestic circle. Making this 
place the centre of their business, they industriously devoted them- 
selves to honest labor, extending their fishing operations over the 
lake, on which they toiled night and day. It seems that the house 
of Simon and Andrew was Jesus's regular place of abode while in 
Capernaum, of which supposition the manifest proofs occur in the 
course of the narrative. Thus, when Jesus came out of the syna- 
gogue, he went to Simon's house, — remained there as at a home, 
during the day, and there received the visits of the immense throng 
of people who brought their sick friends to him ; all which he 
would certainly have been disposed to do at his proper residence, 
rather than where he was a mere occasional visiter. He is also 
elsewhere mentioned, as going into Peter's house in such a familiar 
and habitual kind of way, as to make the inference very obvious, 
that it was his home. On these terms of close domestic intimacy, 
did Jesus remain with these favored disciples for more than a year, 
during which time he continued to reside at Capernaum. He must 
have resided in some other house, however, on his first arrival in 
Capernaum, because, in the incident which is next given here, his 
conduct was evidently that of a person much less intimately ac- 
quainted with Simon than a fellow-lodger would be. The cir- 
cumstances of the call evidently show, that Peter, although 
acquainted with Christ previously, in the way mentioned by John, 
had by no means become his intimate, daily companion. We 
learn from Luke, that Jesus, walking forth from Capernaum, along 
the lake, saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishers having 
gone out of them, were engaged in putting their nets and other 
fishing-tackle in order. As on his walk the populace had thronged 
about him, from curiosity and interest, and were annoying him 
with requests, he sought a partial refuge from their friendly at- 
tacks, on board of Simon's boat, which was at hand, and begging 
him to push out a little from the land, he immediately made the boat 
his pulpit, in preaching to the throng on shore, sitting down and 
teaching the people out of the boat. After the conclusion of his 
discourse, perhaps partly, or in some small measure, with the 
design of properly impressing his hearers by a miracle, with the 
idea of his authority to assume the high bearing which so charac- 
terized his instructions, and which excited so much astonishment 
among them, he urged Simon to push out still further into deep 
water, and to open his nets for a draught. Simon, evidently already 
so favorably impressed respecting his visiter, as to feel disposed to 



62 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

obey and gratify him, did according to the request, remarking, 
however, that as he had toiled all night without catching any 
thing, he opened his net again only out of respect to his Divine 
Master, and not because, after so many fruitless endeavors, so long 
continued, it was reasonable to hope for the least success. Upon 
drawing in the net, it was found to be filled with so vast a number 
of fishes, that having been used before its previous rents had been 
entirely mended, it broke with the unusual weight. They then 
made known the difficulty to their friends, the sons of Zebedee, 
who were in the other boat, and were obliged to share their burden 
between the two vessels, which were both so overloaded with the 
fishes as to be in danger of sinking. At this event, so unexpected 
and overwhelming, Simon was seized with mingled admiration 
and awe ; and reverently besought Jesus to depart from a sinful 
man, so unworthy as he was to be a subject of benevolent attention 
from one so mighty and good. As might be expected, not only 
Peter, but also his companions, — the sons of Zebedee, — were struck 
with a miracle so peculiarly impressive to them, because it was an 
event connected with their daily business, and yet utterly out of 
the common course of things. But Jesus soothed their awe and 
terror into interest and attachment, by telling Simon that hence- 
forth he should find far nobler employment in taking men. And 
as soon as they had brought their ships to land, they forsook 
their nets, ships and all, and followed him, not back into Caper- 
naum, but over all Galilee, while he preached to wondering thou- 
sands the gospel of peace, and set forth to them his high claims to 
their attention and obedience, by healing all the diseased which his 
great fame induced them to bring in such multitudes. This was, 
after all, the true object of his calling his disciples to follow him 
in that manner. Can we suppose that he would come out of Ca- 
pernaum, in the morning, and finding there his acquaintances 
about their honest business, would call on them, in that unaccount- 
able manner, to follow him back into their home, to which they 
would of course, naturally enough, have gone of their own accord, 
without any divine call for a simple act of necessity ? It was evi- 
dently with a view to initiate them, at once, into the knowledge of 
the labors to which he had called them, and to give them an insight 
into the nature of the trials and difficulties which they must en- 
counter in his service. In short, it was to enter them on their 
apprenticeship to the mysteries of their new and holy vocation. 
On this pilgrimage through Galilee, then, he must have been ac- 



peter's discipleship. 63 

companied by his newly chosen helpers, who thus were daily and 
hourly witnesses of his words and actions, as recorded by all the 
three first evangelists. 

The accounts which Matthew and Mark give of this call, have seemed so strikingly 
different from that of Luke, that Calmet, Thoynard, Macknight, Hug, Michaelis, 
Eichhorn, Marsh, Paulus, (and perhaps some others,) have considered Luke's story, 
in v. 1 — 11, as referring to a totally distinct event. See Calmet's, Thoynard's, Mac- 
knight's, Michaelis's, and Vater's harmonies, in loc. Also Eichhorn's introduction, 
1. §58, V. II., — Marsh's dissertation on the origin of the three gospels, in table of 
coincident passages, — Paulus's " Commentar ueber das Neue Test." 1 Thiel. xxiii. 
Abschnitt; comp. xix. Abschnitt, — Hug's " Einleitung in das N. T.," Vol. II. §40. 
" Erste auswanderung, Lucas, iii.," comp. Mark. These great authorities would do 
much to support any arrangement of gospel events ; but the still larger number of 
equally high authorities on the other side, justifies my boldness in attempting to find a 
harmony, where these great men could see none. Lightfoot, Le Clerc, Arnauld, 
Newcome, with his subsequent editors, and Thirlwall, in their harmonies, agree in 
making all three evangelists refer to the same event. Grotius, Hammond, Wetstein, 
Scott, Clarke, Kuinoel, and Rosenmuller, in their several commentaries in loco, — 
also Stackhouse in his history of the Bible, and Home in his introduction, with 
many others, all take the view which I have presented in the text, and may be con- 
sulted by those who wish for reasons at greater length than my limits will allow. 

The date of this actual call has been variously fixed by different chronologists ; but 
it may, with good reason, be referred to the latter part of the year in which the pre- 
ceding introduction of Peter to Jesus took place, — a journey to Jerusalem and a 
passover (John ii. 14) being commonly supposed to have intervened. Baronius 
(Ann. p. 107) fixes it in the year of Christ 31, and of Tiberius 15, which is corrected 
by his accurate critic, Antony Pagi, to A. D. 29, of the Dionysian or vulgar era, 
corresponding to the sixteenth of Tiberius. (Pag. Crit. Baronii, Vol. I. p. 18. comp. 
Appar. Chron. p. 42.) Baillet (Vies des Saints, Vol. II. col. 341, 342, Jan. 29) gives 
it in the latter part of the year of Christ 31, some months after Peter's first introduc- 
tion. In this, he seems merely to follow Baronius. Cave (Hist. Lit. Vol. I. p. 4) 
also dates the call in A. D. 31. 

" Peter and Andrew dwelt together in one house." — This appears from Mark i. 29, 
where it is said that, after the call of the brothers by Jesus, " they entered the house 
of Simon and Andrew." 

" Sat down and taught the people out of the ship" verse 3. This was a convenient 
position, adopted by Jesus on another occasion also. Matt. xiii. 2. Mark iv. 1. 

" Launch out." — Luke v. 4. 'Enavayaye, (Epanagage,) the same word which occurs 
in verse 3, there translated in the common English version, " thrust out." It was, 
probably, a regular nautical term for this backward movement, though in the classic 
Greek, 'Etjavayetv, (Exanagein,) was the form always used to express this idea, inso- 
much that it seems to have been the established technical term. Perhaps Luke may 
have intended this term originally, which might have been corrupted by some early 
copyist into this word, which is in no other place used with this meaning. — " Let 
down" (XaAatrara, Khalasate, in the plural ; the former verb sing.) More literally, 
" loosen," which is the primary signification of the verb, and would be the proper one, 
since the operation of preparing the net to take the fish, consisted in loosening the 
ropes and other tackle, which, of course, were drawn tight, when the net was not in 
use, closing its mouth. — " Master, we have toiled," &c. verse 5. The word 'ETrto-rara, 
(Epistata,) here translated Master, is remarkable, as never occurring in the New 
Testament, except in this gospel. Grotius remarks {in loc.) that doubtless Luke, (the 
most finished and correct Greek scholar of all the sacred writers,) considered this 
as a more faithful translation of the Hebrew "Oi, {Rabbi,) than the common expres- 
sions of the other evangelists, Kvpit, {Kurie, Lord,) and A«5a<™-aA£, (Didaskale, teacher.) 
It was a moderate, though dignified title, between these two in its character ; rather 
lower than " Lord," and rather higher than " Teacher." It is used in the Alexan- 
drine version, as the proper term for a <s steward," a " military commander," &c. (See 
Grotius, Op. theol. Vol. II. p. 372 ; or Poole's Synopsis on this passage.) " Toiled all 
night." This was the best time for taking the fish, as is well known to those who 
follow fishing for a living. 

On this journey, they saw some of his most remarkable miracles, 



64 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES, 

such as the healing of the leper, the paraiytic, the man with the 
withered hand, and others of which the details are not given. It 
was also during this time, that the sermon on the mount was de- 
livered, which was particularly addressed to his disciples, and was 
plainly meant for their instruction, in the conduct proper in them 
as the founders of the gospel faith. Besides passing through many 
cities on the nearer side, he also crossed over the lake, and visited 
the rude people of those wild districts. The journey was, there- 
fore, a very long one, and must have occupied several weeks. 
After he had sufficiently acquainted them with the nature of the 
duties to which he had consecrated them, and had abundantly im- 
pressed them with the high powers which he possessed, and of 
which they were to be the partakers, he came back to Capernaum, 
and there entered into the house of Simon, which he seems hence- 
forth to have made his home while in that city. They found 
that, during their absence, the mother-in-law of Simon had been 
taken ill, and was then suffering under the heat of a violent fever. 
Jesus at once, with a word, pronounced her cure ; and immediately 
the fever left her so perfectly healed, that she arose from her sick 
bed, and proceeded to welcome their return, by her grateful efforts 
to make their home comfortable to them, after their tiresome pil- 
grimage. 

" Immediately the fever left her." — Matt. viii. 15 ; Mark i. 31 ; Luke iv. 39. It may 

seem quite idle to conjecture the specific character of this fever; but it seems to me 
a very justifiable guess, that it was a true intermittent, or fever and ague, arising 
from the marsh influences, which must have been very strong in such a place as Ca- 
pernaum, — situated as it was, on the low margin of a large fresh- water lake, and with 
all the morbific agencies of such an unhealthy site, increased by the heat of that cli- 
mate. The immediate termination of the fever, under these circumstances, was an 
abundant evidence of the divine power of Christ's word, over the evil agencies which 
mar the health and happiness of mankind. 

During some time after this, Peter does not seem to have left 
his home for any long period at once ; but he no doubt accompa- 
nied Jesus on all his excursions through Galilee, besides the first, 
of which the history has been here given. It would be hard, and 
exceedingly unsatisfactory, however, to attempt to draw out from 
the short, scattered incidents which fill the interesting records of 
the gospels, any very distinct, detailed narrative of these various 
journeys. The chronology and order of most of these events, is 
still left much in the dark : and most of the pains taken to bring 
out the truth to the light, have only raised the greater dust to blind 
the eyes of the eager investigate?!*. To pretend to roll all these 
clouds away at once, and open to common eyes a clear view of 



peter's discipleship. 65 

facts, which have so long confused the minds of some of the wisest 
and best of almost every Christian age, and too often, alas ! in 
turn, been confused by them, — such an effort, however well meant, 
could only win for its author the contempt of the learned, and the 
perplexed dissatisfaction of common readers. But one very simple, 
and comparatively easy task, is plainly before the writer ; and to 
that he willingly devotes himself for the present. This task is, 
that of separating and disposing, in what may seem their natural 
order, with suitable illustration and explanation, those few facts 
contained in the gospels, relating distinctly to this apostle. These 
facts, accordingly, here follow. 

HIS FIRST MISSION. 

The next affair in wJiich Peter is mentioned, by either evan- 
gelist, is the final enrollir^of the twelve peculiar disciples, to whom 
Jesus gave the name of apostles. In their proper place have 
already been mentioned, both the meaning of this title and the 
rank of Peter on the list ; and it need here only be remarked, that 
Peter went forth with the rest, on this, their first and experimental 
mission. All the three first gospels contain this account ; but 
Matthew enters most fully into the charge of Jesus, in giving them 
their first commission. In his tenth chapter, this charge is given 
with such particularity, that a mere reference of the reader to that 
place will be sufficient, without any need of explanation here. 
After these minute directions for their behavior, they departed, as 
Mark and Luke record, and " went through the towns, preaching 
the gospel, that men should repent. And they cast out many 
devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed 
them." How far their journey extended, cannot be positively de- 
termined ; but there is no probability that they went beyond the 
limits of Galilee. Divided as they were into couples, and each 
pair taking a different route, a large space must have been gone 
over in this mission, however brief the time can be supposed to 
have been. As to the exact time occupied, we are, indeed, as un- 
certain as in respect to the distance to which they traveled ; but 
from the few incidents placed by Mark and Luke between their 
departure and return, it could hardly have been more than a few 
weeks, probably only a few days. The only affair mentioned by 
either evangelist, between their departure and return, is, the notice 
taken by Herod of the actions of Jesus, to whom his attention was 
drawn by his resemblance to John the Baptist. They then say, 



66 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

that " the apostles, when they were returned, gathered themselves 
together to Jesus, and told him all things, — both what they had 
done and what they had taught." As this report was received by 
Jesus without any comment that is recorded, it is fair to conclude 
that their manner of preaching, and the success of their labors, 
had been such as to deserve his approbation. In this mission, 
there is nothing particularly commemorated with respect to Peter's 
conduct ; but no doubt the same fiery zeal which distinguished 
him afterwards, on so many occasions, made him foremost in this, 
his earliest apostolic labor. His rank, as chief apostle, too, pro- 
bably gave him some prominent part in the mission, and his field 
of operations must have been more important and extensive than 
that of the other apostles, and his success proportionably greater. 

It is deserving of notice, that on this first mission, Jesus seems to have arranged 
the twelve in pairs, in which order he probably sent them forth, as he certainly did 
the seventy disciples, described in Luke x. 1. The object of this arrangement, was 
no doubt to secure them that mutual support which was so desirable for men, so un- 
accustomed to the high duties on which they were now despatched. 

Their destination, also, deserves attention. The direction of Jesus was, that they 
should avoid the way of the heathen, and the cities of the Samaritans, who were but 
little better, and should go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This expression 
was quoted, probably, from those numerous passages in the prophets, where this term 
is applied to the Israelites, as in Jer. 1. 6, Isa. liii. 6, Ezek. xxxiv. 6, &c, and was 
used with peculiar force, in reference to the condition of those to whom Jesus sent 
his apostles. It seems to me, as if he, by this peculiar term, meant to limit them to 
the provinces of Galilee, where the state and character of the Jews was such as emi- 
nently to justify this melancholy appellative. The particulars of their condition will 
be elsewhere shown. They were expressly bounded on one side, from passing into 
the heathen territory, and on the other from entering the cities of the Samaritans, 
who dwelt between Galilee and Judea proper ; so that a literal obedience of these in- 
structions, would have confined them entirely to Galilee, their native land. Mac- 
knight also takes this view. The reasons of this limitation, are abundant and obvious. 
The peculiarly abandoned moral condition of that outcast section of Palestine, — the 
perfect familiarity which the apostles must have felt with the people of their own 
region, whose peculiarities of language and habits they themselves shared so per- 
fectly as to be unfitted for a successful outset among the Jews of the south, without 
more experience out of Galilee, — the shortness of the time, which seems to have 
been taken up in this mission, — the circumstance that Jesus sent them to proclaim 
that " the kingdom of heaven was at hand," that is, that the Messiah was approach- 
ing, which he did in order to arouse the attention of the people to himself, when he 
should go to them, (compare Luke x. 1,) thus making them his forerunners, — and the 
fact, that the places to which he actually did go with them, on their return, were all 
in Galilee, (Matt. xi. xix. 1, Mark vi. 7, x. 1, Luke ix. 1 — 51,) — all serve to show that 
this first mission of the apostles, was limited entirely to the Jewish population of Ga- 
lilee. His promise to them also, in Matt. x. 2, 3, " you shall not finish the cities of 
Israel, before the son of man come," seems to me to mean simply, that there would 
be no occasion for them to extend their labors to the Gentile cities of Galilee, or to the 
Samaritans ; because, before they could finish their specially allotted field of survey, 
he himself would be ready to follow them, and confirm their labors. This was men- 
tioned to them in connexion with the prediction of persecutions which they would 
meet, as an encouragement. For various other explanations of this last passage, see 
Poole's Synopsis, Rosenmuller, Wetstein, Macknight, Le Sainte Bible avec notes, 
&c. in loc. But Kuinoel, who quotes on his side Beza, Bolten, and others, supports 
the view, which an unassisted consideration induced me to suggest. 

" Anointed with oil." Mark vi. 13. The same expression occurs in James v. 14, 
and needs explanation, from its connexion with a peculiar rite of the Romish church, 



peter's discipleship. 67 

—extreme unction, from which it differs, however, inasmuch as it was always a 
hopeful operation, intended to aid the patient, and secure his recovery ; while the 
Romish ceremony is always performed in case of complete despair of life, only with 
a view to prepare the patient, by this form, for certain death. The operation men- 
tioned as so successfully performed by the apostles, for the cure of diseases, was 
undoubtedly a simple remedial process, previously in long-established use among the 
Hebrews, as clearly appears by the numerous authorities quoted by Lightfoot, Wet- 
stein, and Paulus, from Rabbinical, Greek, and Arabic sources ; yet Beza, and others, 
quoted in Poole's Synopsis, as well as Rosenmtiller, suggest some symbolical force 
in the ceremony, for which see those works in loc. See also Kuinoel, and Bloom- 
field, who gives numerous references. See also Marlorat's Bibliotheca expositionum, 
Stackhouse's Hist, of the Bible, Whitby, &c. 

THE SCENES ON THE LAKE. 

After receiving the report of his apostle's labors, Jesus said to 
them, "Come ye yourselves apart into a retired place, and rest 
awhile-;" for there were many coming and going, and they had no 
leisure so much as to eat. And he took them and went privately 
aside by ship, into a lonely place, near the city called Bethsaida. 
And the people saw him departing, and many knew him, and 
went on foot to the place, out of all the country, and outwent 
them, and came together to him as soon as he reached there. And 
he received them, and spoke unto them of the kingdom of God, 
and healed them that had need of healing. It was on this occa- 
sion that he performed the miracle of feeding the multitude with 
five loaves and two fishes. So great was the impression made on 
their minds by this extraordinary act of benevolence and power, 
that he thought it best, in order to avoid the hindrance of his great 
task, by any popular commotion in his favor, to go away in such 
a manner as to be effectually beyond their reach for the time. 
With this view, he constrained the disciples to get into the ship, 
and go before him to the other side of the lake, opposite to Beth- 
saida, where they then were, while he sent away the people. After 
sending the multitude away, he went up into a mountain, apart ? 
to pray. And after night-fall, the vessel was in the midst of the 
sea, and he alone on the land. Thence he saw them toiling with 
rowing, (for the wind was contrary to them, and the ship tossed 
in the waves :) and about three or four o'clock in the morning, he 
comes to them, walking on the sea, and appeared as if about to 
pass unconcernedly by them. But when they saw him walking 
upon the sea, they supposed it to have been a spirit, and they all 
cried out, " It is a spirit ;" for they all saw him, and were alarmed ; 
and immediately he spoke to them, and said, " Be comforted ; it is 
I ; be not afraid." And Peter, foremost in zeal on this occasion, 
as at almost all times, said to him, " Lord, if it be thou, bid me 



68 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

come to thee upon the water." And he said, " Come." And 
when Peter had come down out of the vessel, he walked on the 
water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he 
was afraid ; and beginning to sink, he cried, " Lord, save me." 
And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him ; 
and said to him, " O thou of little faith ! wherefore didst thou 
doubt ?" And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased ; 
and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and 
wondered. And all they that were in the vessel came and wor- 
shiped him, saying, " Of a truth, thou art the Son of God." This 
amazement and reverence was certainly very tardily acknowledged 
by them, after all the wonders they had seen wrought by him ; but 
they considered not the miracle of the loaves, the most recent of 
all, which happened but a few hours before. For this thought- 
lessness, in a matter so striking and weighty, Jesus himself after- 
wards rebuked them, referring both to this miracle of feeding the 
five thousand, and to a subsequent similar one. However, the 
various great actions of a similar character, thus repeated before 
them, seem at last to have had more effect, since, on an occasion 
not long after, they boldly and clearly made their profession of 
faith in Jesus, as the Christ. 

" A lonely place." — The word desert, which is the adjective given in this passage, 
in the common English version, (Matt. xiv. 13, 15, Mark vi. 31, 32, 35, Luke ix. 10, 
12,) does not convey to the reader the true idea of the character of the place. The 
Greek word "Ep^os {Eremos) does not in the passage just quoted, mean " desert" in 
our modern sense of that English word, which always conveys the idea of " desola- 
tion," " wildness," and " barrenness," as well as " solitude." But the Greek word by 
no means implied these darker characteristics. The primary, uniform idea of the 
word is " lonely" H solitary ;" and so little does it imply " barrenness," that it is applied 
to lands, rich, fertile, and pleasant ; a connexion, of course, perfectly inconsistent with 
our ideas of a desert place. Schleusner gives the idea very fairly under 'EpTj/xuz, 
(Eremia,) a derivative of this word. " Notat locum aliquem vel tractum terrae, non 
tarn incultum et horridum, quam minus habitabilem, — solitudinem, — locum vacuum 
quidem ab hominibus, pascuis tamen et agris abundantem, et arboribus obsitum" " It 
means a place or tract of land, not so much uncultivated and wild, as it does one 
thinly inhabited, — a solitude, a place empty of men indeed, yet rich in pastures and 
fields, and planted with trees." But after giving this very clear and satisfactory ac- 
count of the derivative, he immediately after gives to the primitive itself, the primary 
meaning " desertus, desolatus, vastus, devastalus," and refers to passages where the 
word is applied to ruined cities ; but in every one of those passages, the true idea is 
that above given as the meaning, " stripped of inhabitants," and not " desolated" or 
" laid waste." Hedericus gives this as the first meaning, " desertus, solus, solitarius, 
inhabitatus." Schneider also fully expresses it, in German, by " einsam," {lonely, 
solitary,') in which he is followed by Passow, his improver, and by Donnegan, his 
English translator. Jones and Pickering also give it thus. Bretschneider and 
Wahl, in their N. T. Lexicons, have given a just and proper classification of the 
meanings. The word " desert" came into our English translation, by the minute 
verbal adherence of the translators to the Vulgate or Latin version, where the word 
is expressed by " desertum," properly enough, because desertus, in Latin, does not 
mean desert in English^ nor any thing like it, but simply " lonely," " uninhabited;" 
— in short, it has the force of the English participle " deserted" and not of the ad- 



69 

jective " desert" which has probably acquired its modern meaning, and lost its old 
one, since our common translation was made ; thus making one instance, among a 
thousand others, of the imperfection of this ancient translation, which too often limits 
itself to a servile English rendering of the Vulgate. Campbell, in his four gospels, 
has repeated this passage, without correcting the error, though Hammond, long 
before, in his just and beautiful paraphrase, (on Matt. xiv. 13,) had corrected it by 
the expression, " a place not inhabited." Charles Thomson, in his version of the 
Alexandrine, has overlooked the error in Matt. xiv. 13 — 15, but has corrected it in 
Mark vi. 31, &c, and in Luke ix. 10; expressing it by " solitary" The remark of 
the apostles to Jesus, " This place is lonely," does not require the idea of a barren 
or wild place ; it was enough that it was far from any village, and had not inhabitants 
enough to furnish food for five thousand men ; as in 2 Cor. xi. 27, it is used in oppo- 
sition to " city," in the sense of " the country." 

In the course of the conversations and instructions which soon 
after occurred in connexion with the miracle of the loaves, Jesus, 
in the synagogue at Capernaum, proclaimed to an assembly of 
many disciples, several solemn and mysterious truths respecting 
his own nature, and the conditions of salvation through him, — 
truths which sounded so strangely to the ears of his hearers, that 
many from that day renounced the discipleship of him who laid 
such difficult and seemingly impracticable obligations on his fol- 
lowers. On witnessing this melancholy defection of so many who 
had once heartily espoused his cause and doctrines on an imperfect 
acquaintance, he turned mournfully to the little band of the chosen 
twelve, now left almost alone with him, and said — " Will you also 
go away ?" In reply to this simple but moving inquiry, Simon 
Peter, with the prompt zeal that characterized and well became 
him, as the chief and leader of the apostles, spoke in behalf of all, 
eloquently repelling the implication of doubt, by the unhesitating 
and all-confiding declaration — " Lord ! To whom shall we go 1 
Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are 
sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." Thus 
honestly and boldly spoke the faithful apostolic chief, with as little 
doubt of the zeal and firmness of his associates as of his own. 
But he, who knew the hearts of all men, saw among the silently 
assenting eleven, one already self-devoted to a career of treachery, 
crime, and ruin ; and his reply to this clear profession was there- 
fore tempered with the statement of the circumstance which ex- 
plained and justified the previous doubtful inquiry. The accuser 
was among them, known only to himself and his future victim. 



Journeying on northward, Jesus came into the neighborhood of 
Cesarea Philippi, and while he was there in some solitary place, 
praying alone with his select disciples, at the conclusion of his 
10 



70 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

prayer, he asked them, " Who do men say that I, the son of man, 
am ?" And they answered him, " Some say that thou art John the 
Baptist :" (Herod, in particular, we know, had this notion ;) " some, 
that thou art Elijah ; and others that thou art Jeremiah, or one of 
the prophets, that is risen again." So peculiar was his doctrine, 
and so far removed was he, both in impressive eloquence and in 
original views, from the degeneracy and servility of that age, that 
the universal sentiment was, that one of the bold pure " spirits of 
the fervent days of old," had come back to call Judah from foreign 
servitude, to the long-remembered glories of the reigns of David 
and Solomon. But his chosen ones, who had by repeated instruc- 
tions, as well as long acquaintance, better learned their Master, 
though still far from appreciating his true character and designs, 
had yet a higher and juster idea of him, than the unenlightened 
multitudes who had been amazed by his deeds. To draw from 
them the distinct acknowledgment of their belief in him, Jesus at 
last plainly asked his disciples, " But who do you say that I am V 
Simon Peter, in his usual character as spokesman, replied for the 
whole band, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
Jesus, recognizing in this prompt answer, the fiery and devoted 
spirit that would follow the great work of redemption through 
life, and at last to death, replied to the zealous speaker in terms of 
marked and exalted honor, prophesying at the same time the high 
part which he would act in spreading and strengthening the 
kingdom of his Master : " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah, 
for flesh and blood have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father 
who is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art a 
rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give thee the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth, shall be loosed in heaven." In such high terms was the 
chief apostle distinguished, and thus did his Master peculiarly 
commission him above the rest, for the high office to which all 
the energies of his remaining life were to be devoted. 

Who do men say that lam. — The common English translation, here makes a gross 
grammatical blunder, putting the relative in the objective case,— " Whom do men 
say," &c. (Matt. xvi. 13 — 15.) It is evident that on inverting the order, putting the 
relative last instead of first, it will be in the nominative, — " Men say that I am who ?" 
making, in short, a nominative after the verb, though it here comes before it by the 
inversion which the relative requires. Here again the difficulty may be traced to a 
heedless copying of the Vulgate. In Latin, as in Greek, the relative is given in the 
accusative, and very properly, because it is followed by the infinitive. " Quern dicunt 



71 

homines esse Filium hominis'?" which literally is, " Whom do men say the son of 
man to be 1" — a very correct form of expression; but the blunder of our translators 
was in preserving the accusative, while they changed the verb from the infinitive to 
the finite form; for " whom" cannot be governed by " say." Hammond has passed 
over the error ; but Campbell, Thomson, and Webster, have corrected it. 

Son of Man. — This expression has acquired a peculiarly exalted sense in our 
minds, in consequence of its repeated application to Jesus Christ, and its limitation to 
him, in the New Testament. But in those days it had no meaning by which it could 
be considered expressive of any peculiar characteristic of the Savior, being a mere 
general emphatic expression for the common word " man," used in solemn address 
or poetical expressions. Both in the Old and New Testament it is many times ap- 
plied to men in general, and to particular individuals, in such a way as to show that 
it was only an elegant periphrasis for the common term, without implying any pecu- 
liar importance in the person thus designated, or referring to any peculiar circum- 
stance as justifying this appellative in that case. Any concordance will show how 
commonly the word occurred in this connexion. The diligent Butterworth enume- 
rates eighty-nine times in which this word is applied to Ezekiel, in whose book of 
prophecy it occurs oftener than in any other book in the Bible. It is also applied to 
Daniel, in the address of the angel to him, as to Ezekiel ; and in consideration of the 
vastly more frequent occurrence of the expression in the writers after the captivity, 
and its exclusive use by them as a formula of solemn address, it has been commonly 
considered as having been brought into this usage among the Hebrews, from the dia- 
lects of Chaldea and Syria, where it was much more common. In Syriac, more par- 
ticularly, the simple expression, " man," is entirely banished from use by this solemn 
periphrasis, ^.SL^a &.C^i {bar-nosh,) " son of man," which every where takes the place of 
the original direct form. It should be noticed, also, that in every place in the Old 
Testament, where this expression (" son of man") occurs, before Ezekiel, the former 
part of the sentence invariably contains the direct form of expression, (" man,") and 
this periphrasis is given in the latter part of every such sentence, for the sake of a 
poetical repetition of the same idea in a slightly different form. Take for instance, 
Psalm viii. 4, " What is man, that thou art mindful of him % or the son of man that 
thou visitest him V And exactly so in every other passage anterior to Daniel and 
Ezekiel, as Numbers xxiii. 19, Job xxv. 6, xxxv. 8, Isa. li. 12, lvi. 2, and several 
other passages, to which any good concordance will direct the reader. 

The New Testament writers, too, apply this expression in other ways than as a 
name of Jesus Christ. It is given as a mere periphrasis, entirely synonymous with 
" man," in a general or abstract sense, without reference to any particular individual, 
in Mark iii. 28, (compare Matt. xii. 31, where the simple expression " men" is 
given,) Heb. ii. 6, (a mere translation of Ps. viii. 4,) Eph. iii. 5, Rev. i. 13, xiv. 14. 
In the peculiar emphatic limitation to which this note refers, it is applied by Jesus 
Christ to himself about eighty times in the gospels, but is never used by any other 
person in the New Testament, as a name of the Savior, except by Stephen, in Acts 
vii. 56. It never occurs in this sense in the apostolic epistles. (Bretschneider.) For 
this use of the word, I should not think it necessary to seek any mystical or import- 
ant reason, as so many have done ; nor can I see that in its application to Jesus, it has 
any very direct reference to the circumstance of his having, though divine, put on a 
human nature ; but it is simply a nobly modest and strikingly emphatic form of expres- 
sion used by him, in speaking of his own exalted character and mighty plans, and 
partly to avoid the too frequent repetition of the personal pronoun. It is at once evi- 
dent that this indirect form, in the third person, is both more dignified and modest in 
solemn address, than the use of the first person singular of the pronoun. Exactly 
similar to this are many forms of circumlocution with which we are familiar. The 
presiding officer of any great deliberative assembly, for instance, in announcing his 
own decision on points of order, by a similar periphrasis, says, " The Chair decides," 
&c. In fashionable forms of intercourse, such instances are still more frequent. In 
many books, where the writer has occasion to speak of himself, he speaks in the third 
person, " the author," &c. 

This periphrasis (" son of") is not peculiar to Oriental languages, as every Greek 
scholar knows who is familiar with Homer's common expression vies 'A^at^, (huies 
Mhaion,) " sons of Grecians," instead of " Grecians" simply, which, by a striking 
coincidence, occurs in Joel iii. 6, in the same sense. Other instances might be need- 
lessly multiplied. 

Thou art a Rock, fyc— This is the just translation of Peter's name, and the force 



72 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

of the declaration is best understood by this rendering. As it stands in the original, 
it is " Thou art Uirpu;, {Petros, " a rock,") and on this Jlirpa {Petra, " a rock") I will 
build my church," — a play on the words so palpable, that great injustice is done to 
its force by a common, tame, unexplained translation. The variation of the words 
in the Greek, from the masculine to the feminine termination, makes no difference 
in the expression. In the Greek Testament, the feminine -nirpa {petra) is the only 
form of the word used as the common noun for " rock;" but the masculine werpos {pe- 
tros) is used in the most finished classic writers of the ancient Greek, of the Ionic, 
Doric, and Attic, as Homer, Herodotus, Pindar, Xenophon, and, in the later order of 
writers, Diodorus Siculus. H. Stephens gives the masculine form as the primitive, 
but Schneider derives it from the feminine. 

This simple and natural construction has, however, seemed to many of ancient 
and modern times to be so replete with difficulties, and so irreconcilable with their 
notions of the character of Peter, and with the extent of the honor implied in the 
words, that they have sought other modes of interpretation. The full consideration 
of the various constructions that have been put on these words, would require a 
much larger space than the limits of this book will allow ; and the vastness of the 
subject may be appreciated from the circumstance that in Suicer's Thesaurus, the 
statement of the principal opinions of the Fathers fills eight large folio columns ; 
(Vol. II. col. 698 — 706,) — and the condensed view of more modern opinions in Poole's 
Synopsis covers a very large folio page. All these statements of opinions may be 
briefly reduced to this. The great majority of the Fathers consider the words as re- 
ferring primarily to Peter, though this opinion is variously qualified in different 
passages, by such remarks as " that it was upon Peter's faith, rather than upon Peter 
himself, that the church was founded" — a nicety that may well be characterized as 
" a distinction without a difference ;" for who supposes that the church could be said 
to be founded upon Peter, in any more personal sense, than that his zeal, faith, devo- 
tion, and energy, on this occasion manifested, should be the active means of establish- 
ing, extending, and governing the church of that Lord whom he had declared to be 
the Christ 1 But this is, after all, a secondary construction, and not the true primary 
grammatical relation of the words. The principles of syntax require that the words 
" this rock" should refer to some substantive already expressed ; and since there is no 
such abstract noun in the passage, as "faith," but, on the contrary, the name of Peter 
is just before mentioned with a palpable allusion to the paronomasia of Petros and 
Petra, every rule of grammar and common sense makes it necessaiy to infer that 
Jesus applied the words, " this rock," to Peter. This reference to the etymological 
signification of proper names is by no means unusual in the solemn language of scrip- 
ture prophecy. The Hebrew prophets abound in such allusions, (Stuart's Heb. 
Gram. § 571 ;) and Jacob's prophecy (Gen. xlix.) is in many passages made up of 
paronomasiae on the names of his sons. And what shows that the Fathers considered 
the abstract reference as a secondary 7iew, and that with them the personal reference 
to Peter was the primary natural application of the passage, is — the fact that the same 
Fathers who are quoted in support of this as opposed to a personal reference, do in 
other passages distinctly declare Peter himself to have been the foundation of the 
church. Thus Chrysostom, who is quoted as maintaining in some passages that 
Peter's confession was the foundation of the church, in very numerous passages calls 
Peter, the rock on which the church was founded, and explains the appellation by 
reference to the meaning of his name. 'Appuyiis irirpa, Kp^is dadXevros, — " the un- 
broken rock, the unshaken foundation." (Homil. 82.)— 'H Kpv-ls rfjg £Kx\wias, &c, 

" The foundation of the church, — truly a rock, both in name and in deed." (Horn. 

108.) — 'O Sia tovto K\r)deis TleTpog, eneiddv rjj iriarei nEirerpojpevos rjv, — " For this cause he 

was called a rock, {Petros,} because, in faith, he was of a rocky firmness." (Horn. 
2, on Ps. li.) Chrysostom abounds in these exalted commendations of Peter, and, 
in several places, mentions him under such titles as — " the foundation of the church." 
(Bzpekiov rfj? ewXrjo-ia?, Horn. 3, on Matt.) — " The foundation of the confession." (1% 
hpoXoyias, Homil. 32.) — " The column of the church." ('0 o-rSAo?, &c. Horn. 32.V— 
M The firmament of the faith," — and many other expressions less immediately con- 
nected with this passage. Cfril, of Alexandria, also, who is quoted in defense of the 
secondary application of these words, plainly declares that " Jesus very properly named 
him Petros, {the rock,} because he vjould found his church upon him." (Lib. II. in 
Johan. i. 42.) — Theophanes, also quoted in defense of the opposite view, says that 
" Peter was the symbol of the faith, being, as it were, the rock of the faith, and the 
foundation of the church." — Epiphanies also declares Peter "the solid rock on which 
the church was built," (Haer. 59.) — Ambrose says, " Peter is called the rock of the 



73 

churches, on account of the firmness of his devotion, as, says the Lord—' Thou art 
Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.' "— Photius says that " on Peter were 
laid the foundations of the faith."— All these Fathers are quoted moreover in support 
of the view, that it was not upon Peter himself, but upon his confession, his faith, and 
his teaching, that the church was built; but the fair construction of the declarations 
here quoted is enough to show, that however distinct the opposite declarations, they 
never can annull the opinion that Peter was the person meant by the term — " this 
rock,"— and that on him, in the full scope of the poetical prophecy of Christ, the 
church was built. Indeed it must be understood as a thing of course, that the whole 
expression is poetical, and requires to be interpreted into common language to give 
its full force, equally whether the words are referred primarily to Peter's confession 
or to Peter himself ;— if such a distinction can indeed be made. Besides the Fathers 
above quoted, there are numerous others, still more ancient, whose testimony has 
always been esteemed unequivocal in favor of the application of the words to Peter. 
Gregory Nazianzen says of Peter — " He indeed was called a rock, and to him were 
committed the foundations of the church." (Orat. 26, de Petro.) He also calls him 
"the prop of the church." (Apolog. ad init.) — Basil, of Caesarea, says — " The soul 
of the blessed Peter is called a high rock, because it fixed its roots firmly in the faith, 
and raised itself steadily against the shocks of temptation." (On Isa. ii.) — In another 
work, he says — " Peter, on account of the eminence of his faith, received on himself 
the foundation of the church." (Adv. Eunom. Lib. II. p. 41, d. Paris ed.) — Hilary 
calls Peter " the rock of the church," — " the foundation of the church," &c, in 
several passages. — Epiphanius, in words more palpably direct than those quoted above 
from him by Suicer, calls Peter " the great leader (or Coryphaeus, — Kopvcpaioraros 
d.TToar6\u,v) of the apostles, — who is to us indeed a solid rock at the foundation of the 
faith, on which the church universal is built ; because he, first of all, acknowledged 
Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God, and was told that on this rock of firm 
faith, Jesus would build his church." (Haeres. LIX. 8.) He elsewhere says that 
Peter was " manifestly declared the great leader of the apostles." (Haer. LI. 17.) — 
Cyprian (A. D. 248, earlier than any before quoted) says, in three places, that " on 
Petrus, the church was built." (" Petrus, super quern ecclesia fundata est." Epist. 71, 
72, bis.) — Tertullian (A. D. 192, the oldest authority on this text) says of Peter, that 
he was " called the rock on which the church was to be built." (Petrum, aedificandae 
ecclesiae petram dictum. De praescriptione hereticorum, 22.) A testimony so an- 
cient, may well outweigh in authority the speculations of a hundred later Fathers, 
as to the original understanding of the text. — Origen may with equal propriety be 
ranked as unqualified testimony to the same effect, notwithstanding that he has been 
claimed as opposing the sole ascription of the honor to Peter. In his commentary on 
Matt. xvi. 16, he very beautifully extends the words of Christ from Peter (to whom 
he does not deny their primary application) to all who shall imitate the zeal and faith 
of Peter. In the interpretation which he gives, he grants, of course, that the primary 
application of the words of Jesus on that occasion, was to Peter, from whom he does 
not seek to detract a particle of the original honor of these exalted terms ; but he 
proceeds to make the following poetical, yet practical application. " If light from the 
Father who is in heaven do but shine in our heart, we shall become as Peter, and to 
us also it shall be said by the Word, ' Thou art Petros,' &c. For every disciple of 
Christ is a rock, upon which is built every doctrine of the church, and that conduct 
in life which accords with it." The whole passage, so far from denying (as some sup- 
pose) the primary application of the words to Peter, does most triumphantly confirm 
that view, by extending it secondarily to all who shall be inspired with that faith and 
zeal which moved Peter on that occasion. That to any other of the apostles who might 
be equally faithful and zealous, the same words might be applied, need not be denied ; 
but in the case recorded, the blessing, the promise, and the whole prophecy were ad- 
dressed to Peter solely and singly, nor was any part ever extended to the other apos- 
tles, except the assurance that what they should bind or loose on earth should be bound 
or loosed in heaven ; but all the rest remains the peculiar privilege of Peter. To him 
alone were given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and he alone was declared 
blessed in the revelation of the truth from the Father ; and all these peculiar honors 
were in perfect consistence with the pre-eminence which was always granted to him. 
As Origen himself says, " Peter was probably put first on the list of apostles, because 
he was more honorable than the rest ; just as Judas was put last." (Comm. in Joh. I. 
42.) And finally, he says, that " on Peter was built the church of Christ." (In 
Euseb. H. E., VI. 19.) 
Thus far all the testimonies of the Fathers are shown, in effect, to harmonize, in 



74 . LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ascribing the reference of this declaration to Peter, and many more might be shown 
to the same purport. But Augustin (A. D. 397) was the first to maintain that by 
the words — " this rock," Jesus meant himself, and really had no direct reference at 
all to Peter in the utterance of the expression — " upon this rock I will build my 
church." This opinion has been adopted and earnestly defended in modern times by 
some of those who were seeking the means of combating that Papal tyranny which 
based its blasphemous claims to Divine right on this passage. A host of Gallic and 
of Protestant commentators, whose names, though great, cannot outweigh the evi- 
dence in favor of a better view, have maintained this ground. (For the list of these 
authors, and the details of their opinions, see Poole's Synopsis and Wolf's Curae, in 
loc.) The necessity of explaining away this noble pre-eminence of Peter, (which 
seems to have been the grand motive of the perversion among moderns,) is however 
entirely obviated and removed, by the fact that even though we should give up to the 
Papists all which they demand not only for Peier's eminence, but also for his power 
and supremacy over the apostles and the whole church, all the conclusions which they 
have so boldly drawn from this in favor of any superior authority, or even emi- 
nence of the church of Rome, are just as foolishly false, as would be similar infe- 
rences in favor of any other church claiming the name of Christian in any part of 
the world. The church of Rome has no more connexion with Peter than the church 
of Novogorod or of St. Petersburgh has ; and any pretension that Peter ever founded 
or noticed the church of Rome, or made it the inheritor of his power and honor as 
the head of the apostolic company, can be proved to be as idle and unfounded as the 
claim also set up by the Roman see to the power of working miracles, of forgiving 
sins, and the possession of the keys of heaven ; and its falsity will be thus proved in 
the right place, in the course of this work. 

The fullest and most masterly exhibition of the papistical argument on this point, 
is found in Natalis Alexander's " Historia Ecclesiastica." (Vol. I. pp. 170 — 175, and 
pp. 191 — 207.)— Baronius has also an argument of some length on this subject in his 
Annales. (A. C. 33, §§ 16—27.) — The true and just defense of this primary application 
of the words may be found in Cameron, on the passage. His argument is most 
triumphantly displayed in Poole's Synopsis, where it is shown to be perfectly con- 
sistent with the firm maintenance of Protestant ground. 

Among the most eminent modern supporters of Augustin's reference of it to Christ, 
are Maldonati, Erasmus, Lightfoot, and Wolf. The two latter may be consulted for 
the best specimens of this argument. 

After this distinct profession of faith in him by his disciples, 
through Peter, Jesus particularly and solemnly charged them all, 
that they should not then assert their belief to others, lest they 
should thereby be drawn into useless and unfortunate contests about 
their Master, with those who entertained a very different opinion of 
him. For Jesus knew that his disciples, shackled and possessed as 
they were with their phantasies about the earthly reign of a Mes- 
siah, were not, as yet, sufficiently prepared to preach this doctrine : 
and he wisely foresaw that the mass of the Jewish people would 
either put no faith at all in such an announcement, or that the ill 
disposed and ambitious would abuse it, to the purposes of effecting 
a political revolution, by raising a rebellion against the Roman 
rulers of Palestine, and oversetting foreign power. He had, it is 
true, already sent forth his twelve apostles, to preach the coming 
of the kingdom ; but that was only to the effect that the time of 
the Messiah's reign was nigh, and that the lives and hearts of all 
must be changed, — all which the apostles might well preach, with- 
out pretending to announce who the Messiah was. 



75 



HIS AMBITIOUS HOPES AND THEIR HUMILIATION. 



This avowal of Peter's belief that Jesus was the Messiah, to 
which the other apostles gave their assent, silent or loud, was so 
clear and hearty, that Jesus plainly perceived their persuasion of 
his divine authority to be so strong, that they might now bear a 
decisive and open explanation of those things which he had hith- 
erto rather darkly and dimly hinted at, respecting his own death. 
He also, at this time, brought out the full truth more clearly, as to 
the miseries which hung over him, and his expected death, with 
the view the more effectually to overthrow those false notions 
which they had preconceived, of earthly happiness and triumph 
to be expected in the Messiah's kingdom ; and with the view, also, 
of preparing them for the events which must shortly happen ; lest, 
after they saw him nailed to the cross, they should all at once lose 
their high hopes, and utterly give him up. He knew, too, that he 
had such influence with his disciples, that if their minds were 
shocked, and their faith in him shaken, at first, by such a painful 
disclosure, he could soon bring them back to a proper confidence 
in him. Accordingly, from this time, he began distinctly to set 
forth to them, how he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many 
things from the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, 
and be raised again on the third day. There is much room for 
reasonable doubt, as to the manner in which those who heard 
this declaration of Christ, understood it at the time. As to the 
former part of it, namely, that he would be ill-treated by the great 
men of the Jewish nation, both by those ruling in the civil and in 
the religious government, it was too plain for any one to put any 
but the right meaning upon it. But the promise that he should, 
after this horrible fate, rise again from the dead on the third day, 
did not, as it is evident, by any means convey to them the mean- 
ing which all who read it now, are able to find in it. Nothing- 
can be more plain to a careful reader of the gospels, than that his 
disciples and friends had not the slightest expectation that he would 
ever appear to them after his cruel death ; and the mingled horror 
and dread with which the first news of that event was received 
by them, shows them to have been utterly unprepared for it. It 
required repeated positive demonstration, on his part, to assure 
them that he was truly alive among them, in his own form and 
character. The question then is — what meaning had they all 
along given to the numerous declarations uttered by him to them. 



76 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

apparently foretelling this, in the distinct terms of which the 
above passage is a specimen ? Had they understood it as we do, 
and yet so absolutely disbelieved it, that they put no faith in the 
event itself, when it had so palpably occurred ? And had they, for 
months and years, followed over Palestine, through labors, and 
troubles, and dangers, a man, who, as they supposed, was boldly 
endeavoring to saddle their credulity with a burden too monstrous 
for even them to bear ? They must, from the nature of their con- 
nexion with him, have put the most unlimited confidence in him, 
and could not thus devotedly have given themselves up to a man 
whom they believed or suspected to be constantly uttering to them 
a falsehood so extravagant and improbable. They must, then, 
have put some meaning on it, different from that which our clearer 
light enables us to see in it ; and that meaning, no doubt, they 
honestly and firmly believed, until the progress of events showed 
them the power of the prophecy in its wonderful and literal fulfil- 
ment. They may have misunderstood it, in his lifetime, in this 
way : a universal characteristic of the language of the children of 
Shem, seems to be a remarkable proneness to figurative expres- 
sions ; and the more abstract the ideas which the speaker wishes to 
convey, the more strikingly material are the figures he uses, and 
the more poetical the language in which he conveys them. Teach- 
ers of morals and religion, most especially, have, among those na- 
tions of the East, been always distinguished for their highly figu- 
rative expressions, and none abound more richly in them than the 
writers of the Old and New Testament. So peculiarly effective, 
for his great purposes, did Jesus Christ, in particular, find this 
variety of eloquence, that it is distinctly said of him, that he sel- 
dom or never spoke to the people without a parable, which he was 
often obliged to expound more in detail, to his chosen followers, 
when apart with them. This style of esoteric and exoteric in- 
struction had early taught his disciples to look into his most ordi- 
nary expressions for a hidden meaning ; and nothing can be more 
likely than that often, when left to their own conjectures, they, for 
a time at least, overleaped the simple literal truth, into a fog of 
figurative interpretations, as too many of their very modern suc- 
cessors have often done, to their own and others' misfortune. We 
certainly know that, in regard to those very expressions about 
raising the dead, there was a very earnest inquiry among the three 
chief apostles, some time after, as will be mentioned in place, 
showing that it never seemed possible to them that their Lord, 



Peter's discipleship. 77 

mighty as he had showed himself, could ever mean to say to them, 
that, when his bitter foes had crowned his life of toil and cares 
with a bloody and cruel exit, he — even He, could dare to promise 
them, that he would break through that iron seal, which, when 
once set upon the energies of man, neither goodness, nor valor, 
nor knowledge, nor love, had ever loosened, but which, since the 
first dead yielded his breath, not the mightiest prophet, nor the 
most inspired, could ever break through for himself. The figure 
of death and resurrection, has often been made a striking image 
of many moral changes ; — of some one of which, the hearers of 
Jesus probably first interpreted it. In connexion with what he 
had previously said, nothing could seem more natural to them, 
than that he, by this peculiarly strong metaphor, wished to remind 
them that, even after his death by the envious and cruel hands 
of Jewish magistrates, in but a few days, his name, — the ever fresh 
influence of his bright and holy example, — the undying powers of 
his breathing and burning words, should still live with them, and 
with them triumph over the momentary struggles of the enemies 
of the truth. 

The manner, also, in which Simon Peter received this commu- 
nication, shows that he could not have anticipated so glorious and 
dazzling a result of such horrible evils : for, however literally he 
may have taken the prophecy of Christ's cruel death, he used all 
his powers to dissuade his adored master from exposing himself 
to a fate so dark and dreadful, — so sadly destructive of all the 
new-born hopes of his chosen followers, and from which the con- 
clusion of the prophecy seemed to offer no clear or certain mode 
of escape. Never before, had Jesus spoken in such plain and de- 
cided terms about the prospect of his own terrible death. Peter, 
whose heart had just been lifted up to the skies with joy and hope, 
in the prospect of the glorious triumphs to be achieved by his 
Lord through his means, and whose thoughts were even then 
dwelling on the honors, the power, the fame, which were to accrue 
to him for his share in the splendid work, — was shocked beyond 
measure, at the strange and seemingly contradictory view of the 
results, now taken by his great leader. With the confident fami- 
liarity to which their mutual love and intimacy entitled him, in 
some measure, he laid his hand expostulatingly upon him, and 
drew him partly aside, to urge him privately to forget thoughts of 
despondency, so unworthy of the great enterprise of Israel's resto- 
ration, to which they had all so manfully pledged themselves as his 
11 



78 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

supporters. We may presume, that he, in a tone of encourage- 
ment, endeavored to show him how impossible it would be for the 
dignitaries of Jerusalem to withstand the tide of popularity which 
had already set so strongly in favor of Jesus ; that so far from 
looking upon himself as in danger of a death so infamous, from 
the Sanhedrim, he might at the head of the hosts of his zealous 
Galileans, march as a conqueror to Jerusalem, and thence give 
laws from the throne of his father David, to all the wide territories 
of that far-ruling king. Such dreams of earthly glory seemed to 
have filled the soul of Peter at that time ; and we cannot wonder, 
then, that every ambitious feeling within him recoiled at the 
gloomy announcement, that the idol of his hopes was to end his 
days of unrequited toil, by a death so infamous as that of the 
cross.—" Be it far from thee, Lord," (" God forbid," " Do not say 
so," " Do not thus damp our courage and high hopes,") " This 
must not happen to thee." — Jesus, on hearing these words of ill- 
timed rebuke, which showed how miserably his chief follower had 
been infatuated and misled by his foolish and carnal ambition, 
turned away indignantly from the low and degraded motives, by 
which Peter sought to bend him from his holy purposes. Not 
deigning to look upon him, but turning to the other disciples, who 
had kept their feelings of regret and disappointment to themselves, 
he, in the most energetic terms, expressed his abhorrence of such 
notions, by his language to the speaker. " Get thee behind me, 
Satan ; thou art a scandal to me ; for thou savorest not the things 
which be of God, but the things which be of men." — " In these 
fervent aspirations after eminence, I recognize none of the pure 
devotion to the good of man, which is the sure test of the love of 
God ; but the selfish desire for transient, paltry distinction, which 
characterizes the vulgar ambition of common men, enduring no 
toil or pain, but in the hope of a more than equal earthly re- 
ward speedily accruing." — After this stern reply, which must have 
strongly impressed them all with the nature of the mistake of 
which they had been guilty, he addressed them still further, in 
continuation of the same design of correcting their false notion 
of the earthly advantages to be expected by his companions in toil. 
He immediately gave them a most untempting picture of the char- 
acter and conduct of him who could be accepted as a fit fellow- 
worker with Jesus. " If any one wishes to come after me, let him 
deny himself, and let him take up his cross," (as if we should say, 
let him come with his halter around his neck, and with the gibbet 



79 

on his shoulder,) " and follow me. For whosoever shall save his 
life for my sake, shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his life for 
my sake, shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall 
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? For the Son of Man 
shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels ; and then, 
he shall reward every man according to his works." " I solemnly 
tell you, there are some standing here who shall not taste of death, 
till they see the Son of Man coining in his kingdom." — " In vain 
would you, in pursuit of your idle dreams of earthly glory, yield 
up all the powers of your soul, and spend your life for an object 
so worthless. After all, what is there in all the world, if you 
should have the whole at your disposal — what, for the momentary 
enjoyment of which, you can calmly pay down your soul as the 
price ? Seek not, then, for rewards so unworthy of the energies 
which I have recognized in you, and have devoted to far nobler 
purposes. Higher honors will crown your toils and sufferings, in 
my service ; — nobler prizes are seen near, with the eye of faith. 
Speedily will the frail monuments of this world's wonders crumble, 
and the memory of its greatnesses pass away ; but over the ruins 
of kingdoms, the coming of the Man to whom you have joined 
yourselves is sure ; and in that triumphant advent, you shall find 
the imperishable requital of your faithful and zealous works. And 
of the nature and aspect of the glories which I now so dimly 
shadow in words, some of those who now hear me shall soon be 
the living witnesses, as of a foretaste of rewards, whose full en- 
joyment can be yours, only after the weariness and misery of this 
poor life are all passed. Years of toil, dangers, pain, and sorrow, 
— lives passed in contempt and disgrace, — deaths of ignominy, of 
unpitied anguish, and lingering torture, must be your passage to 
the joys of which I speak ; while the earthly honors which you 
now covet, shall for ages continue to be the prize of the base, the 
cruel, and the foolish, from whom you vainly hope to snatch 
them." 

THE TRANSFIGURATION. 

The mysterious promise thus made by Jesus, of a new and pe- 
culiar exhibition of himself, to some of his chosen ones, he soon 
sought an occasion of executing. About six or eight days after 
this remarkable conversation, he took Peter, and the two sons of 
Zebedee, James and John, and went with them into a high moun- 
tain, apart by themselves. As to the name and place of this 



80 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

mountain, a matter of some interest certainly, there have been two 
opinions among those who have attempted to illustrate the topo- 
graphy of the gospels. — The phrase, " a high mountain," has in- 
stantly brought to the thoughts of most learned readers, Mount 
Tabor, famous for several great events in Bible history, which 
they have instantly adopted, without considering the place in 
which the previous account had left Jesus, which was Caesarea 
Philippi ; already described as in the farthest northern part of Gal- 
ilee. Now, Mount Tabor, however desirable in other particulars, 
as the scene of a great event in the life of Jesus, was full seventy 
miles south of the place where Jesus had the conversation with 
his disciples, which led to the remarkable display which followed 
a few days after, on the mountain. It is true, that the intervening 
period of a week was sufficient to enable him to travel this dis- 
tance with ease ; but the difficulty is, to assign some possible ne- 
cessity or occasion for such a journey. Certainly, he needed not 
to have gone thus far to find a mountain, for Caesarea Philippi 
itself stands by the base of Paneas, which is a part of the great 
Syrian range of Antilibanus. This great mountain, or mountain 
chain, rises directly behind the city, and parts of it are so high 
above the peak of Tabor, and every other mountain in Palestine, as 
to be covered with snow, even in that warm country. The original 
readers of the gospel story, were dwellers in Palestine, and must 
have been, for the most part, well acquainted with the character 
of the places which were the scenes of the incidents, and could 
hardly have been ignorant of the fact, that this splendid city, so 
famous as the monument of royal pride and gratitude, was near 
the northern end of Palestine, and, of course, must have been 
known even by those who had never seen it, nor heard it particu- 
larly described, to be very near the great Syrian mountains ; so 
near, too, as to be very high elevated above the cities of the south- 
ern country, since not far from the city gushed out the most dis- 
tant sources of the rapid Jordan. But another difficulty, in respect 
to this journey of seventy miles to Tabor, is, that while the gospels 
give no account of it, it is even contradicted by Mark's statement, 
that after departing from the mountain, he passed through Galilee, 
and came to Capernaum, which is between Tabor and Caesarea 
Philippi, twenty or thirty miles from the former, and forty or fifty 
from the latter. Now, that Jesus Christ spared no exertion of 
body or mind, in " going about doing good," no one can doubt ; 
but that he would spend the strength devoted to useful purposes, 



peter's discipleship. 81 

in traveling from one end of Galilee to the other, for no greater 
good than to ascend a particular mountain, and then to travel 
thirty miles back on the same route, is a most unnecessary tax 
upon our faith. But here, close to Caesarea Philippi, was the 
mighty range of Antilibanus, known in Hebrew poetry by the 
name of Hermon, in this part ; and He, whose presence made all 
places holy, could not have chosen, among all the mountains of 
Palestine, one which nature had better fitted to impress the be- 
holder who stood on the summit, with ideas of the vast and sub- 
lime. Modern travelers assure us that, from the peaks behind the 
city, the view of the lower mountains to the south, — of the plain 
through which the young Jordan flows, soon spreading out into 
the broad sheet of lake Houle, (Samachonitis lacus,) and of the 
country, almost to lake Tiberias, is most magnificent. The pre- 
cise peak which was the scene of the event here related, it is im- 
possible to conjecture. It may have been any one of three which 
are prominent: either the castle hill, or farther off and much 
higher, Mount Bostra, once the site of a city, or, farther still, and 
highest of all, Merura Jubba, which is but a few hours walk from 
the city. The general impression of the vulgar, however, and of 
those who take the traditions of the vulgar and the ignorant, with- 
out examination, has been, that Tabor was the scene of the event ; 
so that, at this day, it is known among the Christians of Pa- 
lestine, by the name of the Mount of the Transfiguration. So 
idly are these foolish local traditions received, that this falsehood, 
so palpable on inspection, has been quietly handed down from the 
time of the devoutly credulous empress Helena, when hundreds of 
these and similar localities, were hunted up so hastily, and by per- 
sons so ill-qualified for the search, that more modern investigators 
may be pardoned for treating with so little consideration the voice 
of such antiquity, when it is found opposed to a rational and con- 
sistent understanding of the gospel story. When the question was 
first asked, " Where is the mount of the transfiguration '?" there 
were enough persons interested to reply, " Mount Tabor." No 
reason was probably asked for the decision, and none was given ; 
but as the scene was acted on a high mountain in Galilee, and as 
Tabor answered perfectly to this very simple description, and was 
moreover interesting on many other accounts, both historical and 
natural, it was adopted for the transfiguration without any discus- 
sion whatever, among those on the spot. Still, to learned and 
diligent readers of the gospels, the inconsistencies of such a belief 



82 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

have been so obvious, that many great theologians have decided, 
for the reasons here given, that the transfiguration must have taken 
place on some part of Mount Paneas, as it was called by the Greeks 
and Romans ; known among the Jews, however, from the earliest 
times, by the far older name of Mount Hermon. On the determi- 
nation of this point, more words have been expended than some 
may deem the matter to deserve ; but among the various objects 
of the modern historian of Bible times, none is more important or 
interesting, than that of settling the often disputed topography of 
the sacred narrative; and as the ground here taken differs so 
widely from the almost universally received opinion, the minute 
reasons were loudly called for, in justification of the author's bold- 
ness. The ancient blunder here detected, and shown to be based 
only upon a guess, is a very fair specimen of the way in which, 
in the moral, as in the natural sciences, " they all copy from one 
another," without taking pains to look into the truth of small mat- 
ters. And it seems to show, moreover, how, when men of patient 
and zealous accuracy, have taken the greatest pains to expose and 
correct so causeless an error, common readers and writers, too, 
will carelessly and lazily slip back into the old blunder, thus 
making the counsels of the learned of no effect, and loving dark- 
ness rather than light, error rather than exactness, because they 
are too shiftless to find a good reason for what is laid down before 
them as truth. But so it is. It is, and always has been, and 
always will be, so much easier for men to swallow whole, or reject 
whole, the propositions made to them, that the vast majority had 
much rather believe on other people's testimony, than go through 
the harassing and tiresome task of looking up the proofs for them- 
selves. In this very instance, this important topographical blun- 
der was fully exposed and corrected a century and h half ago, by 
Lightfoot, one of the greatest Hebrew scholars that ever lived ; ' 
and we see how much wiser the world is for his pains. 

Caesarea Philippi. — This city stood where all the common maps place it, in the 
farthest northern part of Palestine, just at the foot of the mountains, and near the 
fountain head of the Jordan. The name by which it is called in the gospels, is an- 
other instance, like Julias Bethsaida, of a compliment paid by the servile kings, of 
the divisions of Palestine, to their imperial masters, who had given, and who at any 
time could take away, crown and kingdom from them. The most ancient name by 
which this place is known to have been mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures, is Lasha, 
in Genesis x. 19, afterwards variously modified into Leshem, (Joshua xix. 47,) and 
Laish, (Judges xviii. 7, xiv. 29,) a name somewhat like the former in sound, though 
totally different in meaning, (ce6 leshem, " a precious stone," and w 1 ? laish, " a lion,") 
undoubtedly all three being from the same root, (and bearing only an accidental resem- 
blance to the two Hebrew words just quoted,) but variously modified in the changing 
pronunciations of different ages and tribes. In the earliest passage, (Gen. x. 19,) it 



peter's discipleship. 83 

is clearly described as on the farthest northern limit of the land of Canaan, and after- 
wards being conquered, later than most of that region, by a band of the tribe of Dan, 
and receiving the name of this tribe, as an addition to its former one, it became 
proverbially known under the name of Dan, as the farthest northern point of the 
land of Israel, — Beersheba being the southern one. It did not, however, lose its early 
Canaanitish name till long after ; for, in Isaiah x. 30, it is spoken of under the name 
of Laish, as the most distant part of Israel to which the cry of the distressed could 
reach. It is also mentioned under its later name of Dan, in Gen. xiv. 14, and Deut. 
xxxiv. 1, where it is given by the writer, or some copyist, in anticipation of the sub- 
sequent account of its acquiring this name after the conquest. Josephus also men- 
tions it, under this name, in Ant. book I. chap. x. and book VIII. chap. viii. sect. 4, in 
both which places he speaks of it as standing at one of the sources of the Jordan, 
from which circumstance, no doubt, the latter part of the river's name is derived. 
After the overthrow of the Israelitish power in that region, it fell into the hands of 
new possessors, and under the Greeks and Romans, went by the name of Panias, 
(Josephus and Ptolemy,) or Paneas, (Josephus and Pliny,) which name, according to 
Ptolemy, it had under the Phoenicians. This name, supposed to have been taken 
from the Phoenician name of the mountain near, Josephus gives to it, in all the later 
periods of his history, until he speaks of the occasion on which it received a new 
change of name. 

Its commanding and remarkable position, on the extremity of Palestine, made it a 
frontier post of some importance ; and it was therefore a desirable addition to the do- 
minions of Herod the Great, who received it from his royal patron, Augustus Caesar, 
along with its adjacent region between Galilee and Trachonitis, after the death of 
Zenodorus, its former possessor. (Jos. Ant. XV. x. 3.) Herod the Great, out of 
gratitude for this princely addition to his dominions, at a time when attempts were 
made to deprive him of his imperial master's favor, raised near the city a noble 
monument to Augustus. (Jos. as above quoted.) " He built a monument to him, of 
white marble, in the land of Zenodorus, near Panium. There is a beautiful cave 
in the mountain, and beneath it there is a chasm in the earth, rugged, and of immense 
depth, full of still water, and over it hangs a vast mountain ; and under the cave rise 
the springs of the Jordan. This place, already very famous, he adorned with the 
temple which he consecrated to Caesar." A lofty temple of white marble, on such 
a high spot, contrasted with the dark rocks of the mountain and cave around, must 
have been a splendid object in the distance, and a place of frequent resort. 

This city, along with the adjacent provinces, after the death of the first Herod, was 
given to his son Philip, made tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis. This prince, out 
of gratitude to the royal donor, at the same time when he rebuilt and repaired Beth- 
saida, as already mentioned, " also embellished Paneas, at the fountains of the Jordan, 
and gave it the name of Caesarea." (Jos. Ant. book XVIII. chap. ii. sec. 1, also Jewish 
War, book II. chap. ix. sec. 1,) and to distinguish it from other Caesareas, hereafter 
to be mentioned, it was called from the name of its royal builder, Caesarea Philippi, 
that is, " the Caesarea of Philip." By this name it was most commonly known in 
the- time of Christ ; but it did not answer the end of perpetuating the name of its 
builder and his patron, for it shortly afterwards received its former name, Paneas, 
which, probably, never went wholly out of use. As late as the time of Pliny, (about 
A. D. 70,) Paneas was a part of the name of Caesarea. " Fons Paneas,, qui cognomen 
dedit Caesareae," — " the fountain Paneas, which gave to Caesarea a surname ;" (Plin. 
Nat. Hist, book v. chap. 15 :) which shows that, at that time, the name Paneas was 
one, by which even foreign geographers recognized this city, in spite of the imperial 
dignity of its new title. Eusebius (about A. D. 315) speaks of " Caesarea Philippi, 
which the Phoenicians call Paneas, at the foot of mount Panium." (Qi'XiTnrov Kai- 

o-aptia rjv JIaveaSa <&oivikes npoarayopsvovcri, &C. Hist. Ecc. book vii. chap. 17.) Jerome 

(about A. D. 392) never mentions the name Caesarea Philippi, as belonging to this 
city, except in commenting on Matt. xvi. 13, where he finds it necessary to explain 
this name, as an antiquated term, then out of use. " Caesaream Philippi, quae nunc di- 
citur Paneas,"—" Caesarea Philippi, which is now called Paneas ;" and in all the other 
places where he has occasion to mention the place, he gives it only the name of Paneas. 
Thus, in commenting on Amos viii. 14, he says, " Dan, on the boundary of the 
Jewish territory, which now is Paneas." And on Jerem. iv. 15, — " The tribe Dan, 
near mount Lebanon, and the city which is now called Paneas," &c— See also his 
commentary on Daniel xi. 16. 

After the death of Philip, this city, along with the rest of his dominions, was pre- 
sented by Caius Caligula to Agrippa I., and, after his death, was ultimately given by 



84 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Claudius Caesar to Agrippa II., who added still farther to the improvements made by 
Philip, more particularly ornamenting the Panium, or famous source of the Jordan, 
near the city, as Josephus testifies. (Jewish War, book III. chap. x. sect. 7.) " The 
natural beauty of the Panium, moreover, was still more highly adorned (Trpoo-^vjo-^raj) 
with royal magnificence, being embellished by the wealth of Agrippa." This king also 
attempted to perpetuate the name of one of his imperial patrons, in connexion with the 
city, calling it Neronias, in honor of one who is well enough known without this aid. 
(Jos. Ant. book XX. chap. ix. sect. 4.) The perfectly transient character of this idle 
appellation, is abundantly shown from the preceding copious quotations. 

The city, now called 'Banias, (not Belinas, as Wahl erroneously says,) has been 
visited and examined in modern times by several travelers, of whom, none has de- 
scribed it more minutely than Burckhardt. His account of the mountains around 
the city, so finely illustrates my description of the scene of the transfiguration, that 
I extract largely from it here. In order to appreciate the description fully, it must be 
understood that Heish is now the general Arabic name for the mountain chain, which 
was by ancient authors variously called Lebanon, Libanus, Anti-Libanus, Hermon, 
and Panium ; for all these names have been given to the mountain-range, on whose 
slope Caesarea Philippi, or Paneas, stood. 

" The district of Banias is classic ground; it is the ancient Caesarea Philippi; the 
lake Houle, is the Lacus Samackonitis. Immediately after my arrival, I took a man 
of the village to show me the way to the ruined castle of Banias, which bears E. by 
S. from it. It stands on the top of a mountain, which forms part of the mountain of 
Heish, at an hour and a quarter from Banias ; it is now in complete ruins, but was 
once a very strong fortress. Its whole circumference is twenty-five minutes. It is 
surrounded by a wall ten feet thick, flanked with numerous round towers, built with 
equal blocks of stone, each about two feet square. The keep, or citadel, seems to 
have been on the highest summit, on the eastern side, where the walls are stronger 
than on the lower, or western side. The view from thence over the Houle and a 
part of its lake, the Djebel Safad, and the barren Heish, is magnificent. On the 
western side, within the precincts of the castle, are ruins of many private habitations. 
At both the western corners, runs a succession of dark, strongly built, low apart- 
ments, like cells, vaulted, and with small narrow loop-holes, as if for musquetry. 
On this side also, is a well more than twenty feet square, walled in, with a vaulted 
roof at least twenty-five feet high ; the well was, even in this dry season, full of water : 
there are three others in the castle. There are many apartments and recesses in the 
castle, which could only be exactly described by a plan of the whole building. It 
seems to have been erected during the period of the crusades, and must certainly 
have been a very strong hold to those who possessed it. I could discover no traces 
of a road or paved way leading up the mountain to it. In winter time, the shepherds 
of the Felahs of the Heish, who encamp upon the mountains, pass the night in the 
castle with their cattle. * *'* * * * * * 

" Banias is situated at the foot of the Heish, in the plain, which in the immediate 
vicinity of Banias is not called Ard Houle, but Ard Banias. It contains about one 
hundred and fifty houses, inhabited mostly by Turks : there are also Greeks, Druses, 
and Enzairie. It belongs to Hasbeya, whose Emir nominates the Sheikh. On the 
N. E. side of the village, is the source of the river of Banias, which empties itself 
into the Jordan at the distance of an hour and a half, in the plain below. Over the 
source is a perpendicular rock, in which several niches have been cut to receive 
statues. The largest niche is above a spacious cavern, under which the river rises. 
This niche is six feet broad and as much in depth, and has a smaller niche in the 
bottom of it. Immediately above it, in the perpendicular face of the rock, is another 
niche, adorned with pilasters, supporting a shell ornament. * * * * 

" Round the source of the river are a number of hewn stones. The stream flows 
on the north side of the village, where is a well-built bridge, and some remains of 
the ancient town, the principal part of which seems, however, to have been on the 
opposite side of the river, where the ruins extend for a quarter of an hour from the 
bridge. No walls remain, but great quantities of stones and architectural fragments 
are scattered about. ******** 

" I went to see the ruins of the ancient city of Bostra, of which the people spoke 
much. Bostra must not be confounded with Boszra, in the Haouran ; both places are 
mentioned in the Books of Moses. The way to the ruins lies for an hour and a half 
in the road by which I came from Rasheyat-el-Fukhar ; it then ascends for three 
quarters of an hour a steep mountain to the right, on the top of which is the city ; it 
is divided into two parts, the largest being upon the very summit, the smaller at ten 



85 

minutes walk lower down, and resembling a suburb to the upper part. Traces are 
still visible of a paved way that had connected the two divisions. There is scarcely 
any thing in the ruins worth notice ; they consist of the foundations of private habi- 
tations, built of moderate sized square stone. The lower city is about twelve minutes 
walk in circumference ; a part of the four walls of one building only remains entire ; 
in the midst of the ruins was a well, at this time dried up. The circuit of the upper 
city may be about twenty minutes ; in it are the remains of several buildings. In 
the highest part is a heap of wrought stones, of larger dimensions than the rest, 
which seem to indicate that some public building had once stood on the spot. There 
are several columns of one foot, and of one foot and a half in diameter. In two dif- 
ferent places, a short column was standing in the centre of a round paved area of 
about ten feet in diameter. There is likewise a deep well, walled in, but now dry. ** 

" The country around these ruins is very capable of cultivation. Near the lower 
city are groups of olive trees. * * * 

" I descended the mountain in the direction towards the source of the Jordan, and 
passed, at the foot of it, the miserable village of Kerwaya. Behind the mountain of 
Bostra, is another, still higher, called Djebel Meroura Djoubba." (Burckhardt's 
Syria, 4to. London, pp. 37—42.) 

From Conder's Modern Traveler I also draw a sketch of other travelers' observa- 
tions on the place and the surrounding country. 

" Burckhardt, in coming from Damascus, pursued the more direct route taken by 
the caravans, which crosses the Jordan at Jacob's Bridge. Captains Irby and Man- 
gles left this road at Khan Sasa, and passed to the westward for Panias, thus striking 
between the road to Acre, and that by Raschia and Hasbeya. The first part of the 
road from Sasa, led through a fine plain, watered by a pretty, winding rivulet, with 
numerous tributary streams, and many old ruined mills. It then ascended over a 
very rugged and rocky soil, quite destitute of vegetation, having in some places traces 
of an ancient paved way, ' probably the Roman road from Damascus to Caesarea 
Philippi.' The higher part of Djebel Sheikh [that is — " the old man or white moun- 
tain" — its top being always covered with snow,] was seen on the right. The road 
became less stony, and the shrubs increased in number, size, and beauty, as they de- 
scended into a rich little plain, at the immediate foot of the mountain. * From this 
plain,' continues captain M., ' we ascended, and after passing a very small village, 
saw on our left, close to us, a very picturesque lake, apparently perfectly circular, of 
little more than a mile in circumference, surrounded on all sides by sloping hills, 
richly wooded. On quitting Phiala, at but a short distance from it, we crossed a 
stream which discharges into the larger one which we first saw : the latter we fol- 
lowed for a considerable distance ; and then mounting a hill to the S. W. had in view 
the great Saracenic castle, near Panias, the town of that name, and the plain of the 
Jordan, as far as the Lake Houle, with the mountains on the other side of the plain, 
forming altogether a fine coup oVozil. As we descended towards Panias, we found 
the country extremely beautiful. Great quantities of wild flowers, and a variety of 
shrubs just budding, together with the richness of the verdure, grass, corn, and beans, 
showed us, all at once, the beauties of spring, (Feb. 24,) and conducted us into a cli- 
mate quite different from Damascus. In the evening we entered Panias, crossing a 
causeway constructed over the rivulet, which flows from the foot of Djebel Sheikh. 
The river here rushes over great rocks in a very picturesque manner, its banks being 
covered with shrubs and the ruins of ancient walls.' * * * 

" Panias, afterwards called Caesarea Philippi, has resumed its ancient name. The 
present town of Banias is small. Seetzen describes it as a little hamlet of about 
twenty miserable huts, inhabited* by Mahomedans. The ' Castle of Banias' is situated 
on the summit of a lofty mountain ; it was built, Seetzen says, without giving his au- 
thority, in the time of the caliphs." (Mod. Trav. Vol. I. Palestine, pp. 353—6.) 

The distance, in time, from Mount Tabor to Caesarea Philippi, may be conceived 
from the account given by Ibn Haukal, an Arabian geographer and traveler of the 
tenth century. He says, " from Tibertheh (Tiberias, which is near Tabor) to Sur, 
(Tyre,) is one day's journey; and from that to Banias, (Paneas,) is two days' easy 
journey." (Sir W. Ouseley's translation of Ibn Haukal's Geography, pp. 48, 49.) 

Mount Paneas. The argument on this locality may be found very fully and fairly 
stated by Kuinoel. (Commentar. Matt. xvii. 1.) The origination of this view is due 
to the critical and learned Lightfoot, whose clear and satisfactory arguments, sup- 
ported by all references that can illustrate the point, may be found in his " Horae 
Hebr. et Talm. in Evangel. Marc." cap. ix. ver. 7. Also in Matt., Cent. Chor., 
cap. 67. 

12 



86 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

This was an occasion on which Christ did not choose to display 
his glories to the eyes of the ignorant and impertinent mobs that 
usually thronged his path, drawn together as they were, by idle 
curiosity, by selfish wishes for relief from various diseases, or by 
the determination to profit by the mischief, which almost always 
results from such a promiscuous assemblage. It may be fairly 
considered a moral impossibility, for such disorderly and sponta- 
neous assemblies to meet, without more evils resulting, than can 
possibly be counterbalanced by the good done to the assembly as 
a whole, whatever it may be to individuals. So, at least, Jesus 
Christ seems always to have thought ; for he never encouraged 
such gatherings, and took every desirable opportunity of getting 
rid of them, without injury to themselves, or of withdrawing him- 
self quietly from them, as the easiest way of dispersing them; 
knowing how utterly hopeless must be the attempt to do any great 
good among such a set of idlers, compared with what he might do 
by private and special intercourse with individuals. It is worthy 
of note, that Matthew, and all whose calls he describes, were about 
their business. Thus, on an occasion already mentioned, when 
Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, with the simple object of 
doing most good, he did not seek among the multitude that was 
following him, for the devoted laborers whom he might call to the 
great work of drawing in men to the knowledge of the truth as 
revealed in him. No ; he turned from all the zealous loungers 
who had left their business, if they had any, to stroll about after 
the wonderful man who had attracted such general attention by his 
great and good deeds. He despatched them as fast as possible, 
with a few words of instruction and exhortation ; for though he 
did not seek these undesirable occasions, yet he would have been 
as much wanting in benevolence as in wisdom, if, when all the 
evils of such a throng had occurred by the meeting, he had not 
hastened to offer the speediest antidote to the mischief, and the 
best compensation for the loss of time to the company, by giving 
them such words of counsel, reproof, correction, or encouragement, 
as, even when cast like bread upon the waters, or seed by the way- 
side, might yet perchance, or by grace, " be found after many 
days," returning to the hands of the giver, in gratitude, by spring- 
ing up and bearing some fruit to the praise and glory of God. 
Having thus sent off the throng, he addressed himself to the honest 
men whom he had found quietly following their daily employ- 
ments, and immediately performed with them there, and, as is evi- 



peter's discipleship. 87 

dent, mainly for their benefit, a most remarkable miracle ; and 
when they had been thus impressed with his power and wisdom, 
summoned them to his aid in converting the world ; sagely and 
truly judging, that those who had been faithful in few things, would 
be the best rulers over many things, — that they who had steadily 
and faithfully worked at their proper business, had the best talent 
and disposition for laboring in a cause which needed so much pa- 
tient industry and steady application in its devotees. These were 
the men whom he hoped to make, by his instructions, the success- 
ful founders of the Christian faith ; and these were the very men 
whom, out of thousands who longed for the honors of his notice, 
he now chose as the objects of his special instruction and com- 
mission, and called them apart to view the display of the most 
wonderful mystery of his life. 

Among these three favored ones, we see Peter included, and his 
name, as usual, first of all. By this it appears, that, however 
great his late unfortunate misapprehension of the character and 
office of Christ, and however he may have deserved the stern re- 
buke with which his forward but well meant remonstrance was 
met ; still he was so far from having lost his Master's favor on this 
account, that he yet held the highest place in the favor of Jesus, 
who had been moved by the exposure of his favorite's ignorance, 
only to new efforts to give him a just and clear view of the im- 
portant truths in which he. was most deficient. In pursuance of 
this design, he took these three, Peter, James, and John, with him, 
up into the high mountain-peaks of Hermon, from which their 
eyes might glance far south over the land of Israel — the land of 
their fathers for ages on ages, stretching away before them for a 
vast distance, and fancy could easily extend the view. In this 
land, so holy in the recollections of the past, so sad to the contem- 
plation of the present, were to begin their mighty labors. Here, 
too, bright and early, one of the three was to end his ; while his 
brother and friend were to spread their common Master's dominion 
over thousands and millions who had never yet heard of that land, 
or its ancient faith. 

Of all the mountains of Israel, none could have been better 
chosen than that which Jesus now ascended, to give the great three 
a foretaste of his diviner glories. It was Hermon, — classic in He- 
brew poetry, — holy in the visions of the inspired, — glorious in its 
own native vastness and elevation,— now moist with those pure 
dews that of old presented to the Psalmist's mind, the most natu- 



88 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ral and beautiful image of the soft and grateful influences of social 
love, — the token, too, of the blessing which God had commanded 
over all the land of Israel, " to the utmost bound of the everlasting 
hills" — from holy Zion to the mountains of distant Idumea, and 
the far northern heights of Hermon. The highest of all the 
mountains of Palestine — the only one among them which was 
covered with snow — and constituting the northeastern bound of 
the whole region, — its physical characters were such as to make it 
a scene well worthy of the most remarkable event in the earthly 
life of the Son of God. In the solemn decline of an eastern day, 
amid the deepening shades that the mighty western mountains 
threw behind them, as the sun went down over the far sea, — Jesus 
climbed the mountain behind Caesarea Philippi, and led his fa- 
vored disciples to its top, where no human footstep could break 
the silence of night, or intrude on the awful secrecy of the scene 
that followed. Jesus Christ always sought the lonely tops of 
mountains, with a peculiar zest, in his seasons of retirement, as 
well as for the most impressive displays of his eloquence, or his 
miraculous power, The obvious reasons were — the advantages of 
perfect solitude and security against sudden intrusion : — the free, 
pure air of the near heaven, and the broad light of the immense 
prospect, were powerful means of lifting the soul to a state of 
moral sublimity, equal to the impressions of physical grandeur, 
made by the objects around. Their most holy historical associa- 
tions, moreover, were connected with the tops of high mountains, 
removed from which, the most awful scenes of ancient miracle 
would, to the fancy of the dweller of mountainous Palestine, have 
seemed stripped of their most imposing aids. Moriah, Sinai, 
Horeb, Ebal, Gerizim, Zion, and Tabor, were the classic ground 
of Hebrew history ; and to the fiery mind of the imaginative Is- 
raelite, their high tops seemed to tower in a religious sublimity, as 
striking and as lasting as their physical elevation. From these 
lofty peaks, so much nearer to the dwelling-place of God. his soul 
took a higher flight than did ever the fancy of the Greek from 
the classic tops of Parnassus, Ida, " old Pelion, or the skyish 
head of blue Olympus ;" and the three humble gazers, who now 
stood waiting there with their divine Master, felt, no doubt, their 
devotion proportionally exalted with their situation, by such asso- 
ciations. It was the same spirit, that, throughout the ancient 
world, led the earliest religionists to avail themselves of these phy- 
sical advantages, as they did in their mountain worship, and with 



peter's discipleship. 89 

a success just, in proportion as the purity and sincerity of their 

worship, and the high character of its object, corresponded with 

the lofty grandeur of the place. 

" Not vainly did the early Persian make 
His altar the high places, and the peak 
Of earth-o'er-gazing mountains, there to seek 
The spirit in whose honor shrines are weak, 
Upreared of human hands. Come and compare 
Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek, 
With nature's realms of worship, earth and air ; 
Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer." 

In such a scene, and inspired by such sympathies, were the 
chosen three, on this occasion. The bare details, as given in the 
three gospels, make it evident that the scene took place in the 
night, as will be shown in the course of the narrative • and this 
was in accordance also with Christ's usual custom of choosing the 
night as the season of solitary meditation. Having reached the 
top, he engaged himself and them in prayer. How solemn — how 
awful the scene ! The Savior of all, afar from the abodes of men, 
from the sound and sight of human cares and sins, — alone with 
his chosen three, on the vast mountains, with the world as far be- 
neath their eyes as its thoughts were below their minds ! In the 
silence of the night, with the lights of the city and villages faintly 
gleaming in the distance on the lower hills and the plain, — with 
no sound near them but the murmuring of the night- wind about 
the rocks, — with the dark canopy of gathering clouds above them, 
— Jesus prayed. His voice went up from this high altar of earth's 
wide temple, to the throne of his Father, to whom he commended 
in words of supplication those who were to labor for him when 
his earthly work should cease. We may well suppose that the 
substance of his prayer was, that their thoughts, before so gro- 
veling, and now so devotedly clinging to visions of earthly do- 
minion and personal aggrandizement, might " leave all meaner 
things, to low ambition and the pride of kings," and might rise, 
as on that high peak, from earth towards heaven, — to the just 
sense of the far higher efforts and honors to which they were des- 
tined. What intercession could be more effectual? From His 
Father and their Father,— from His God and their God,— Jesus 
asked, for the dearest of his earthly friends, such gifts as no meaner 
source could furnish. The faith that might uproot the mountains, 
and hurl the mighty Hermon into the far western sea, — the hope 
that passes the veil of dim futurity, and anchors the soul beyond 
the dark floods of death,— the love that endures all things, and 



90 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

that never fails, though prophecies, and tongues, and knowledge 
cease, — all the high emotions and energies that could indue them 
for the work to which he devoted them, were, doubtless, now called 
down on the apostolic trio, by their Lord. Such prayers from 
such a petitioner could not be without avail ; nor were they. Yet 
who that could have viewed the errors, the follies, and weaknesses 
that dimmed the otherwise bright course of those apostles in the 
days that next followed, would not have looked on those pray- 
ers as ineffectual, and the object as lost? Not so the eye that 
searched the hearts of all men, and saw, in the long course of 
coming years, the slow but certain accomplishment of the entreaty 
thus earnestly sent up by the Son of God to God himself. Through 
the unrevealed course of coming events, the development of better 
purposes — of higher principles — of holier feelings — and of a purer 
devotion in the spirits of those loved though erring followers, was 
as sure to the mind of the Redeemer, as was the accomplishment 
of his own divine plans ; and he knew that the answer to such 
prayer was not to be sought in the sudden movements of a mi- 
raculous change. " The hearts of men are in the hands of God, 
and he turns them as the rivers of water are turned," by present- 
ing obstacles in one direction, and by removing them in another, 
— by impulses, falls, and difficulties, — all operating through a long 
course, and changing the character of the career only in the lapse 
of time and distance. Such is the answer of God to prayer for 
the transformation of character, the change of heart, and the 
renewal of spirit ; and such was the course of his operations on 
the soul, even when his special influences were invoked by the 
great agent of the world's redemption; and how can feeble and 
erring man hope for a more instant accomplishment of his similar 
purposes 7 Or how dare he claim it 1 

With their thoughts and feelings thus kindled with the holy as- 
sociations of the hour, the place, and the person, their souls must 
have risen with his in that solemn and earnest supplication ; and 
their prayers for new devotion and exaltation of spirit must have 
been almost equally ardent. Probably some hours were passed in 
this employment, varied perhaps by the eloquent and pointed in- 
structions given by Jesus, to prepare these chiefs of the apostolic 
band for the full understanding of the nature of his mission and 
theirs. How vastly important to their success in their labors, and 
to their everlasting happiness, must these prayers and instructions 
have been ! The three hearers, we may presume, gave for a long 



peter's discipleship. 91 

time, the most devoted attention which a scene so impressive could 
awaken ; but yet they were men, and weary ones too, for they had 
come a considerable distance up a very steep way, and it was now 
late at night, — no doubt long past their bed-time. The exercise 
which their journey to the spot had given them, was of a kind for 
which their previous habits of life had quite unfitted them. They 
were all fishermen, and had dwelt all their lives in the low flat 
country on the shores of lake Tiberias and the valley of the Jor- 
dan, where they had nothing to do with climbing hills. And 
though their constant habits of hard labor must have made them 
stout men in their vocation, yet we all know that the muscles 
called into action by the management of the boat and net, are very 
different from those which support and advance a man in ascend- 
ing acclivities. Every one that has noticed the sturdy arms and 
slender legs of most sailors, has had the practical proof, that a 
man may work all his life at pulling the seine and drag-net, haul- 
ing the ropes of a vessel, and tugging at the oar, without being 
thereby, in the slightest degree, fitted for labors of a different char- 
acter. The work of toiling up a very high, steep mountain, then, 
was such as all their previous habits of life had wholly unfitted 
them for ; and their overstretched limbs and bodies must have been 
both sore and weary, so that when they came to a resting place, 
they very naturally were inclined to repose, and must have felt 
drowsy. In short, they fell asleep ; and that, too, as it would ap- 
pear, in the midst of the prayers and counsels of their adorable 
Lord. And yet who that considers all the reasons above given, 
can wonder ? for it is very possible for a man to feel the highest 
interest in a subject offered to his consideration, — an interest, too, 
which may for a long time enable a zealous mind to triumph over 
bodily incapacity, — yet there is a point beyond which the most 
intense energy of mind cannot drag the sinking body, when fatigue 
has drained its strength, which nothing but sleep can renew. Men, 
when thus worn down, will sleep in the midst of a storm, or on 
the eve of certain death. In such a state were the bodies of the 
companions of Jesus ; and thus wearied, they slept long, in spite 
of the storm which is supposed by many to have arisen, and to 
have been the immediate cause of some of the striking appearances 
which followed. It is said by many standard commentators, that 
the fairest account of such of the incidents as are connected with 
natural objects, is, that a tremendous thunder-storm came down 
upon the mountain while they were asleep, and that a loud peal 



92 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

bursting from this, was the immediate cause of their awaking. All 
the details that are given, certainly justify the supposition. They 
are described as suddenly starting from their sleep, in such a man- 
ner as would naturally follow only from a loud noise violently 
arousing the slumbering senses. Awakened thus by a peal of 
thunder, the first sight that struck their amazed eyes, was their 
Master, resplendent through the darkness of night and storm with 
a brilliant light, that so shone upon him and covered him, as to 
change his whole aspect to a degree of glory indescribable. To 
add to their amazement and dread, they saw that he was not alone, 
but two mysterious and spiritual personages, announced to them 
as Moses and Elijah, were now his companions, having found 
means to join him. though high on the mighty rock, alone and in 
darkness, so inaccessible to human approach. These two ancient 
servants of God now appeared with his beloved Son, whose labors 
and doctrines and triumphs were so far to transcend theirs ; and 
in the hearing of the three apostles, uttered solemn words of pro- 
phecy about his approaching death, and triumph over death. The 
two sons of Zebedee were so startled as to be speechless ; but the 
boldness and talkativeness of Peter, always so pre-eminent, enabled 
him, even here, to speak his deep awe and reverence. Yet con- 
fused with half-awakened sleep, and stunned by the bursting thun- 
der, he spoke as a man thus suddenly awaked naturally speaks, 
scarcely separating the thoughts of his dream from the objects that 
met his opening eye. He said, " Lord, it is good for us to be here ; 
and if thou wilt, let us make three tabernacles, (or resting places:) 
one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." These things he 
said before his confused thoughts could fully arrange themselves 
into words proper to express his feelings of awe; and he, half 
dreaming still, hardly knew what he said. But as he uttered 
these words, the dark cloud above them suddenly descended upon 
the mountain's head, enwrapping and overshadowing them ; and 
amid the flash of lightnings and the roar of thunders, given out 
in the concussion, they distinguished, in no human voice, these 
awful words, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased ; hear ye him." Who can wonder that a phenomenon so 
tremendous, both morally and physically, overwhelmed their senses, 
and that, alarmed beyond measure, they fell again on their faces to 
the earth, so astonished that they did not dare to rise or look up, 
until Jesus came to them and re-assured them with his friendly 
touch, saying, " Arise, and be not afraid." And lifting up their 



93 

eyes, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. 
The whole object of their retirement to this solitude being now ac- 
complished, they prepared to return to those whom they had left to 
wonder at their strange absence. It was now probably about 
morning ; the storm was passed, — the clouds had vanished,— the 
thunder was hushed, and the cheerful sun now shone on moun- 
tain and plain, illuminating their downward path towards the city, 
and inspiring their hearts with the joyous emotions suited to their 
enlarged views of their Lord's kingdom, and their own duties. As 
they went down, Jesus charged them to tell no man what things 
they had seen, till he, the Son of Man, rose from the dead. And 
they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those 
things which they had seen. But they questioned much with 
one another what the rising from the dead should mean. So that 
it appears, that after all the repeated assurances Jesus had given 
them of the certainty of this event, they had never put any clear 
and definite meaning upon his words, and were still totally in the 
dark as to their essential import. This proof of their continued 
ignorance serves to confirm the view already taken of the way in 
which they understood, or rather misunderstood, the previous 
warning of the same event, in connexion with his charge and re- 
buke of Peter. In connexion also with what they had seen on 
the mountain, and the injunction of secrecy, another question 
arose — why they could not be allowed to speak freely on the sub- 
ject. " For if they had now distinctly seen the prophet Elijah 
returned from the other world, as it appeared, why could they not 
properly announce publicly, so important and desirable an event? 
Else, why did the Jewish teachers say that Elijah must first come 
before the Messiah ? And why, then, should they not freely offer 
their testimony of his presence with Jesus on this occasion, as the 
most satisfactory proof of his Messiahship P The answer of Jesus 
very clearly informed them that they were not to consider this 
vision as having any direct connexion with the prophecy respect- 
ing Elijah's re-appearance, to precede and aid the true Messiah in 
the establishment of the ancient Jewish dominion ; but that all 
that was intended in that prophecy had been fully brought to pass 
in the coming of John the Baptist, who, in the spirit and power 
of Elijah, had already run his bright but brief course as the Mes- 
siah's precursor. With such interesting conversation they con- 
tinued their course in returning towards the city. The way in 
which Luke here expresses the circumstances of the time of their 
13 



94 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

return, is the last and most satisfactory proof to be offered of the 
fact, that their visit to the mountain had been in the night. His 
words are, " And it came to pass that, on the next day, when they 
came down from the mountain, a large multitude met them," &c. 
This shows that they did not go and return the same day, between 
sunrise and sunset; and the only reasonable supposition left to 
agree with the other circumstances, is, that they went at evening, 
and returned early in the morning of the next day. After their 
descent, they found that the remaining disciples had been making 
an unsuccessful attempt to cure an epileptic person ; who was re- 
lieved, however, at a word, as soon as brought to Jesus himself. 
They continued no very long time hi this part of Galilee, after 
these events, but journeyed slowly southwards, towards the part 
which Jesus had formerly made his home. This journey was 
made by him with especial care to avoid public notice, and it is 
particularly expressed by Mark that he went on this homeward 
journey through by-ways or less public roads than usual. For 
as he went, he renewed the sad warning, that he was in constant 
danger of being given up into the hands of wicked men, who, 
feeling reproved and annoyed by his life and doctrine, earnestly 
desired his death ; and that soon their malice would be for a time 
successful ; but that after they had done their worst, he should at 
last triumph over them. Still this assurance, obvious as its mean- 
ing may now seem to us, was not understood by them ; and 
though they puzzled themselves extremely about it, they evidently 
considered their ignorance as of a somewhat justly blamable na- 
ture, for they dared not ask for a new explanation. This passage 
still farther shows, how far they must have been from rightly ap- 
preciating his first declaration on this subject. Having followed 
the less direct routes, for these reasons, he came (doing much good 
on the journey, no doubt, in a quiet and unnoticed way, as we 
know he always did) to Capernaum, which he still regarded as 
his home ; and here again, as formerly, went directly to the house 
of Simon Peter, which he is represented as entering on his first 
arrival in the city, in such a way as to show that there was his 
dwelling, and a welcome entertainment. Indeed we know of no 
other friend whom he had in Capernaum, with whom he was on 
such terms of intimacy, and we cannot suppose that he kept 
house by himself, — for his relations had never yet removed from 
Nazareth. 



peter's discipleship. 95 

Of the scenes of the transfiguration, so great a variety of opinions have been en- 
tertained, that it would be impossible for me to discuss the various views within my 
narrow limits. The old speculations on the subject are very fully given in Poole's 
Synopsis, and the modern ones by Kuinoel, who mentions a vast number of German 
writers, of whom few of us have ever seen even the names elsewhere. 

The view which I have taken is not peculiar to me, but is supported by many high 
authorities, and is in accordance with what seemed to me the simplest and fairest 
construction which could be put upon the facts, after a very full and minute consider- 
ation of the various circumstances, chronologically, topographically, and gramma- 
tically. It should be noticed that my arrangement of the facts in reference to the 
time of day, is this: — Jesus and the three disciples ascended the mountain in the 
evening, about sunset, remained there all night, and returned the next morning. 

THE TRIBUTE MONEY. 

On the occasion of his return and entrance into Peter's house, 
a new instance occurred both of his wisdom and his special regard 
for this apostle. Some of those who went about legally authorized 
to collect the tax due from all conforming Jews, to defray the ex- 
penses of the temple-worship at Jerusalem, appear to have been 
waiting for Christ's return from this journey, to call on him for his 
share, if he were willing to pay it as a good Jew. They seem to 
have had some doubts, however, as to the manner in which so 
eminent a teacher would receive a call to pay those taxes, from 
which he might perhaps deem himself exempted by his religious 
rank, more especially as he had frequently denounced, in the most 
unmeasured terms, all those concerned in the administration of 
the religious affairs of the Jewish nation. As soon as he had re- 
turned, therefore, they took the precaution to make the inquiry of 
Peter, as the well-known intimate of Jesus, " Doth not your Master 
pay tribute?" Peter, knowing well the steady, open reverence 
which Jesus always manifested for all the established usages of 
his country, readily and unhesitatingly answered, " Yes." And 
when he was come into the house, and was upon the point of pro- 
posing the matter to him, Jesus anticipated him, saying, "How 
thinkest thou, Simon ? of whom do the kings of the earth take 
custom or tribute 7 of their own children, or of the children 
of others ?" Peter says, " From others' children." Jesus says again 
to him, " Then are the children free." That is : " If, when the 
kings and rulers of the nations gather their taxes for the support 
of their royal state and authority, they pass over their own chil- 
dren untaxed, as a thing of course, then I, the son of that God 
who is the eternal king of Israel, am fairly exempt from the pay- 
ment of the sum due from other Jews, for the support of the cere- 
monials of my Father's temple in Jerusalem." Still, he did not 
choose to avail himself of this honorable pretext, but went on to 



96 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tell Simon, " Nevertheless, lest we should give needless occasion 
for offense, we will pay what they exact ; and for this purpose, go 
thou to the sea, and take up the fish that comes up first ; and when 
thou has opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money ; take 
that and give it them for me and thee." 

Anticipated him. — This word I substitute in the place of "prevented," which is the 
expression used in our common English Bible, and which in the changes of modern 
usage has entirely lost the signification which it had when the translators applied it 
to this passage. The Greek word here is Trpotydaosv, (proephthasen,) and literally 
means " forespake," or " spake before" him. This was the idea which the English 
translators wished to express by the word "prevented," whose true original meaning 
is " anticipated," or " was beforehand with him," being in Latin compounded of the 
words prae, " before," and venio, " come." Among the numerous conveniences of 
Webster's edition of the Bible, for popular use, is the fact that in this and similar 
passages he has altered the obsolete expression, and changed it for a modern one, 
which is just and faithful to the original idea. In this passage he has given the word 
above suggested. (Matt. xvii. 25.) 

Of the children of others. — This expression too is a variation from the common 
English translation, which here expresses itself so vaguely, that a common reader 
can get no just idea whatever of the passage, and is utterly unable to find the point 
of the allusion. The Greek word is d~k\orpiwv, (allotrion,) which is simply the geni- 
tive plural of an adjective, which means " of, or belonging to others," and is second- 
arily applied also to " strangers, foreigners," &c, as persons " belonging to other 
lands ;" out the primary meaning is absolutely necessary to be given here, in order to 
do justice to the sense, since the idea is not that they take tribute money of foreigners 
rather than of their own subjects; but of their subjects rather than of their own chil- 
dren, who are to enjoy the benefit of the taxation. 

A piece of money. — The term thus vaguely rendered, is, in Greek, Grarhp, {stater,') 
which was a coin of definite value, being worth among the Jews about four Attic 
drachms, and exactly equivalent to their shekel, a little more than half a dollar of 
federal money. The tax here paid was the half-shekel tax, due from every Jew for 
the service of the temple ; so that the " piece of money," being one shekel, was just 
sufficient to pay for both Jesus and Peter. The word translated " the tribute money" 
(in verse 24) is equally definite in the Greek, — SiSpaxpov, (didrachmon,) equivalent to 
the Jewish half-shekel, and being itself worth half a stater. The slater, however, as 
a name for Attic and Byzantine gold coins, was equivalent to twenty or thirty times 
the value of the shekel. (See Stephens's Thes., Donnegan's, Jones', and Pickering's 
Lexicons. On this passage see Hammond's Annotations, which are here quite full 
on values. See, too, Lightfoot's Hor. Heb. on Matt. xvii. 25, — Macknight's Para- 
phrase, Poole and Kuinoel, for a very full account of the matter. Also my note on 
page 44. 

There have been two different accounts of this little circumstance among commen- 
tators, some considering the tribute money to have been a Roman tax, and others 
taking the ground which I do, that it was the Jewish tax for the expenses of the tem- 
ple-worship. The reasons may be found at great length in some of the authorities 
just quoted ; and it may be remarked that the point of the allusion in Jesus's question 
to Peter, is all lost on the supposition of a Roman tax ■ for how could Jesus claim ex- 
emption as a son of the Roman emperor, as he justly could from the Jewish tax for 
the service of the heavenly king, his Father'? The correspondence of values, too, 
with the half-shekel tax, is another reason for adopting that view; nor is there any 
objection to it, except the circumstance, that the time at which this tax is supposed to 
have been demanded, does not agree with that to which the collection of the temple 
tax was limited. (Ex. xxx. 13, and Lightfoot on Matt. xvii. 24.) 

THE Q.UESTION OF SUPERIORITY. 

Soon after the last-mentioned event, there arose a discussion 
among the apostles, as to who should have the highest rank in the 
administration of the government of the Messiah's kingdom, when 



97 

it should be finally triumphantly established. The question shows 
how pitiably deficient they still were, in a proper understanding 
of the nature of the cause to which they were devoted ; but the 
details of this circumstance may be deferred to a more appropriate 
place, under the lives of the persons, who, by their claims, after- 
wards originated a similar discussion, in connexion with which 
this may be most properly mentioned. However, it cannot be 
amiss to remark here, that the very fact of such a discussion having 
arisen, shows, that no one supposed that, from the peculiar distinc- 
tions already conferred on Peter, he was entitled to the assump- 
tion of any thing like power over the rest of the twelve ; or that 
any thing else than a peculiar regard of Christ for him, and a con- 
fidence in his zeal and ability to advance the great cause, was ex- 
pressed in his late honorable and affectionate declaration to him. 
The occurrence of this discussion is also a high and satisfactory 
proof of Peter's modest and unassuming disposition ; for had he 
maintained among the apostles the authority and rank which his 
Master's decided preference might seem to warrant, these high 
pretensions of the sons of Zebedee would not have been thus put 
forward against one so secure in Christ's favor by high talents and 
long habits of close intimacy. 

THE RULE OP BROTHERLY FORBEARANCE. 

The next occasion on which the name of Peter is mentioned 
in the gospels, is his asking Jesus, " how many times he should 
forgive an offending brother? If the brother should repeat the 
offense seven times, should he each time accord him the forgive- 
ness asked?" This question was suggested to Peter's mind, by 
the rules which Christ had just been giving his disciples, for the 
preservation of harmony, and for the redress of mutual grievances 
among them. His charge to them on this subject, enjoined the re- 
peated exercise of forbearance towards a brother who had tres- 
passed, and urged the surrender of every imagined right of private 
redress, to the authority and sanction of the common assembly of 
the apostles. The absolute necessity of some such rule, for the 
very existence of the apostles' union, was plain enough. They 
were men, with all the passions and frailties of common, unedu- 
cated men, and with all the peculiar, fervid energy, which charac- 
terizes the physiology of the races of southwestern Asia. From 
the constant attrition of such materials, no doubt individually dis- 
cordant in temperament and constitution, how could it be hoped, 



98 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

that, in the common course of things, there would not arise fre- 
quent bursts of human passion, to mar and hinder the divine work 
which brought them together ? With a most wise providence for 
these liabilities to disagreement, Jesus had just arranged a princi- 
ple of reference and quiet decision, in all cases of dispute in which 
the bond of Christian fellowship would be strained or broken. His 
charge to them, all and each, was this : " If thy brother shall 
trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and 
him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother ; 
but if he will not hear thee, take with thee on thy second call, 
one or two more, that, according to the standard forms of the Mo- 
saic law, by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may 
be established. And if he shall refuse to hear them, tell it at last 
to the common assembly of the apostles ; and after they have given 
their decision in favor of the justice of the complaint and demand, 
if he still maintain his enmity and wrong against thee, thou art 
no longer held by the apostolic pledge to treat him with brotherly 
regard ; but having slighted all friendly advice, and the common 
sentiment of the brethren, he has lost the privilege of their fellow- 
ship, and must be to thee as one of the low world around him — a 
heathen and an outcast Jew." On this occasion, also, he renewed 
to them all, the commission to bind and loose, which he had before 
particularly delivered only to Peter. As he had, in speaking of 
the treatment, made abundant requisitions for the exercise of for- 
bearance, without mentioning the proper limit to these acts of 
forgiveness, Peter now puts the question : " If my brother sin 
against me seven times, and as often make the reparation which I 
may honestly ask, shall I continue to forgive him ?" That is, " Shall 
I not seem, by these repeated acts of forbearance, at last to be 
offering him inducements to offend against one so placable ? And 
if these transgressions are thus enormously multiplied, will it not 
be right that I should withhold the kind consideration which is 
made of so little account ? M The answer of Jesus is, " I say to 
thee, not merely till seven times, but till seventy times seven." 
That is, " To your forbearance towards an erring and returning 
Christian brother, there should be no limit but his own obstinate 
adhesion to his error. In coming out from the world to follow 
me, you have given up your natural rights to avenge, either le- 
gally or personally, those injuries which pass the bounds of com- 
mon forbearance. The preservation of perfect harmony in the new 
community to which you have joined yourself, is of so much im- 



99 

portance to the triumphant advancement of our cause, as to re- 
quire justly all these sacrifices of personal feeling." With his 
usual readiness in securing an abiding remembrance of his great 
leading rules of action, Jesus, on this occasion, concluded the sub- 
ject with illustrating the principle, by a beautiful parable or story ; 
a mode of instruction, far more impressive to the glowing imagi- 
nation of the Oriental, than to the more calculating genius of 
colder races. 

This inquiry may have been suggested to Peter by a remark made by Christ, which 
is not given by Matthew as by Luke, (xvii. 4.) " If he sin against thee seven times 
in a day, and seven times turn again, &c. thou shalt forgive him." So Maldonati sug- 
gests ; but it is certainly very hard to bring these two accounts to a minute harmony, 
and I should much prefer to consider Luke as having given a general statement of 
Christ's doctrine, without referring to the occasion or circumstances, while Matthew 
has given a more distinct account of the whole matter. The discrepancy between 
the two accounts has seemed so great, that the French harmonists, as well as New- 
come, Le Clerc, Macknight, Thirl wall, and Bloomfield, consider them as referring 
to totally different occasions, — that in Matthew occurring in Capernaum, but that in 
Luke, after his journey to Jerusalem to the feast of the tabernacles. But the utter 
absence of all chronological order in the greater part of Luke's gospel is enough to 
make us suspect, that the event he alludes to may coincide with that of Matthew's 
story, since the amount of the precept, and the general form of expression, is the 
same in both cases. This is the view taken by Rosenmuller, Kuinoel, Vater, Clarke, 
Paulus ; and it seems to be further justified by the consideration, that the repe- 
tition of the precept must have been entirely unnecessary, after having been so 
clearly laid down, and so fully re-examined in answer to Peter's inquiry, as given by 
Matthew, (xviii. 15—22.) 

Seven times. — This number was a general expression among the Hebrews for a 
frequent repetition, and was perfectly vague and indefinite as to the number of repe- 
titions, as is shown in many instances in the Bible where it occurs. Seventy times 
seven, was another expression of the recurrences carried to a superlative number, 
and is also a standard Hebraism, (as in Gen. iv. 24.) See Poole, Lightfoot, Clarke, 
Scott, and other commentators, for Rabbinical illustrations of these phrases. 

A heathen and an outcast. — This latter expression I have chosen, as giving best the 
full force of the name publican, which designated a class of men among the Jews, 
who were considered by all around them as having renounced national pride, honor, 
and religion, for the base purpose of worldly gain ; serving under the Roman govern- 
ment as tax-gatherers, that is, hiring the taxes of a district, which they took by pay- 
ing the government a definite sum, calculating to make a rich profit on the bargain 
by systematic extortion and oppression. The name, therefore, was nearly synony- 
mous with the modern word renegade, — " one who. for base motives, has renounced 
the creed and customs of his fathers." 

THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 

The occurrence which occasioned this discussion, took place at 
Capernaum, where Jesus seems to have resided with his apostles 
for some time after his northern tour to Caesarea Philippi, giving 
them, as opportunity suggested, a great number and variety of 
practical instructions. At length he started with them, on his last 
journey to Jerusalem, the only one which is recorded by the three 
first evangelists, although John gives us accounts of three pre- 
vious visits to the Jewish capital. On this journey, while he was 
passing on to Jerusalem, by a somewhat circuitous course, through 



100 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

that portion of Judea which lies east of the Jordan, he had taken 
occasion to remark, (in connexion with the disappointment of the 
rich young man, who could not give up his wealth for the sake of 
the gospel,) how hard it was for those that had riches, and put 
their trust in them, to join heartily in the promotion of the cause 
of Christ, or share in the honors of its success. Peter, then, speak- 
ing for himself and the faithful few who had followed Jesus thus 
far through many trials, to the risk and loss of much worldly pro- 
fit, reminded Jesus of what they had given up for his sake. " Be- 
hold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee. What shall we 
have therefore ?" The solemn and generous assurance of Jesus, 
in reply, was, that those who had followed him thus, should, in 
the final establishment of his kingdom, when he should receive 
the glories of his triumph, share in the highest gifts which he, 
conqueror of all, could bestow. Then those who had forsaken 
kindred and lands, for his sake, should find all these sacrifices 
made up to them, in the enjoyment of rewards incalculably be- 
yond those earthly comforts in value. 

" Behold, we have forsaken all" — Chrysostom has an animated commentary on this 
passage. In one of his homilies, he begins with this text, (Matt. xix. 27,) and imme- 
diately breaks into a bold apostrophe to the apostle himself.— " All things'? What 
things'? O blessed Peter ! Thy reed 1 (i. e. fishing-pole ;) Thy net ? Thy boat 1 Thy 
business 1 Are these what thou callest all ? ' Yes, he says ; ' but not in the spirit of 
ambition (or vain glory) do I say this ; but that by this inquiry I may bring the poor 
into the scope of the injunction.' For since the Lord said — ' If thou wilt be perfect, 
sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven' — 
lest any poor man should say — ' If I have nothing at all, I cannot be perfect,' — Peter 
inquires, in order that you may learn that, though poor, you are not the worse for 
that. Peter inquires, so that, learning from Peter, you may not be in doubt on this 
point, while yet imperfect and devoid of the graces of the Spirit, — but, receiving this 
explanation from Peter, as from a teacher, may rejoice in hope. For even as we do, 
when, in disputing on behalf of others, we often make their cause our own, — so did 
the apostle in presenting this inquiry on behalf of the whole world. From what 
was before said, it is manifest that he must have understood these things perfectly, as 
far as regarded himself; for having already received the keys of heaven, much more 
might he have confidence as to what was in heaven. Observe, also, how exactly 
his answer implies what Christ required. For he asked of the rich man these two 
things — to give his property to the poor — and to follow him. Wherefore, Peter also 
mentions these two things—' leaving all— and following thee;' for the leaving of all 
things was for the sake of following him ; and while the following of him was made 
the easier for their having forsaken all, he, for the same reason, gave them occasion 
to hope and rejoice, in promising them that they should sit on twelve thrones," &c. — 
(Chrysostom. In Matt. xix. Homil. 65.— Vol. 7, pp. 563, 564, Ed. Commelin. 1617.) 

The ignorance which Chrysostom here manifests, in perverting the plain import of 
the passage, for the sake of reconciling Peter's apparent simplicity with his supposed 
spiritual exaltation, is perfectly characteristic of the Fathers of the age in which 
this homily was written. It is manifest that the sacred text contains nothing that 
warrants the supposition that Peter asked the question for the sake of any person but 
himself and his fellow-disciples ; and every sound, common-sense rule of interpreta- 
tion, forbids such a construction as Chrysostom has put upon his motives. Another 
important error in Chrysostom's reasoning is his assertion that Peter had " received 
the keys of heaven." Nothing in the Bible offers the least shadow of a support to 
this impious conception. Christ never gave nor even promised to give any mortal 



u 



peter's discipleshtp. 101 

" the keys of heaven." His promise to Peter was — " I will give thee the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven," — a very different thing from heaven itself. For in none of the words 
of Jesus is this phrase used in any sense like " heaven." " The kingdom of heaven" 
was the kingdom or reign of Christ on earth ; it was, in modern terms, — the Christian 
dispensation ; and Peter was individually and personally entrusted with the mighty 
charge of opening that kingdom or dispensation to the Gentiles, — a charge which he 
did afterwards actually execute. But heaven is the place where the redeemed and 
the good are to enjoy their eternal reward; it is the peculiar home of God, and of his 
angels, — higher than the noblest human conception can reach, — vaster than any space 
which human sight can glance over. How daring then the blasphemy of him who 
claims for any mortal the keeping of the entrance to the throne of God, and to the 
happiness which He has reserved in his own good pleasure for the blessed subjects of 
His grace ! 

The date of this journey to Jerusalem is fixed by Baronius in the latter part of the 
thirty-third year of Christ, and the seventeenth of the reign of Tiberius Caesar; 
which is corrected by Antony Pagi to A. D. 31, of the common era, — corresponding 
to the eighteenth of the reign of Tiberius. — Baillet (Vies des Saints. 29 Juin, col. 
343) puts it in the latter part of the year 32 ; but his Chronology is not of so high au- 
thority as that of Pagi, who is probably as near the truth as any one can expect to be 
on such very uncertain data. 

This conversation took place just about as they were passing 
the Jordan, into the western section of Judea, near the spot where 
Joshua and the Israelitish host of old passed over to the conquest 
of Canaan. A little before they reached Jericho, Jesus took a 
private opportunity to renew to the twelve his oft-repeated warn- 
ing of the awful events, now soon to happen after his entry into 
Jerusalem. " Behold, we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son of Man 
shall be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they 
shall condemn him to death. And they shall deliver him to the 
heathen, to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him ; and the 
third day he shall rise again." Yet, distinct as was this declara- 
tion, and full as the prediction was in these shocking particulars, 
Luke assures us, that " they understood none of these things ; and 
this saying was hid from them ; neither knew they the things 
which were spoken." Now, we cannot easily suppose that they 
believed that he, to whom they had so heartily and confidently 
devoted their lives and fortunes, was trying their feelings by an 
unnecessary fiction, so painful in its details. The only just sup- 
position which we can make, then, is, that they explained all these 
predictions to themselves, in a way best accordant with their own 
notions of the kingdom which the Messiah was to found, and on 
the hope of whose success they had staked all. The account of 
his betrayal, ill-treatment, and disgraceful death, they could not 
literally interpret as the real doom which awaited their glorious 
and mighty Lord ; it could only mean, to them, that for a brief 
space, the foes of the Son of God were to gain a seeming triumph 
over the hosts that were to march against Jerusalem, to seat him 
on the throne of David. The traitorous heads of the Jewish faith, 



102 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the members of the great Sanhedrim, the hypocritical Pharisees, 
and the lying, avaricious lawyers, would, through cowardice, self- 
ishness, envy, jealousy, or some other meanness, basely conspire 
to support their compound tyranny, by attempting to crush the 
head of the new faith, with the help of their Roman masters, 
whom they would summon to the aid of their falling power. This 
unpatriotic and treacherous effort would for a time seem to be per- 
fectly successful ; but only long enough for the traitors to nil up 
the measure of their iniquities. Then, vain would be the com- 
bined efforts of priest and soldier, — of Jewish and of Roman power. 
Rising upon them, like life from the dead, the Son of God should 
burst forth in the might of his Father, — he should be revealed 
from heaven with ten thousand angels, and recalling his scattered 
friends, who might have been for a moment borne down before 
the iron hosts of Rome, he should sweep every foreign master, 
and every domestic religious tyrant, from Israel's heritage, — setting- 
up a throne, whose sway should spread to the uttermost parts of 
the earth, displacing even the deep-rooted hold of Roman power. 
What then would be the fate of the faithful Galileans, who, though 
few and feeble, had stood by him through evil and good report, 
risking all on his success? When the grinding tyranny of the old 
Sanhedrim had been overthrown, and chief priests, scribes, Phari- 
sees, lawyers, and all, displaced from the administration, the chosen 
ones of his own early adoption, his countrymen, and intimate com- 
panions for years, would be rewarded, sitting on twelve thrones, 
judging the ransomed and victorious twelve tribes of Israel. Could 
they doubt their Lord's ability for this glorious, this miraculous 
achievment ? Had they not seen him maintain his claim for au- 
thority over the elements, over diseases, over the dark agencies of 
the demoniac powers, and over the mighty bonds of death itself? 
And could not the same power achieve the still less wonderful vic- 
tory over the opposition of these unworthy foes ? It was natural 
then, that, with the long cherished hopes of these dazzling tri- 
umphs in their minds, the twelve apostles, though so often and so 
fully warned of approaching evils, should thus unsuspectingly 
persist in their mistake, giving every terrible word of Jesus such 
a turn as would best confirm their baseless hopes. Even Peter, 
already sternly rebuked for his forward effort to exalt the ambition 
of Jesus above even the temporary disgrace which he seemed to 
foreordain for himself, — and so favored with the private instruc- 
tions and counsels of his master, thus erred ; — even James and 



peter's discipleship. 103 

John, also sharers in the high confidence and favor of Jesus, 
though thus favored and taught, were immediately after brought 
under his deserved censure for their presumptuous claims for the 
ascendency, which so moved the wrath of the jealous apostles, 
who were all alike involved in this monstrous and palpable mis- 
conception. Nor yet can we justly wonder at the infatuation to 
which they were thus blindly given up, knowing as we do, that in 
countless instances, similar error has been committed on similar 
subjects, by men similarly influenced. What Biblical commentary, 
interpretation, introduction, harmony, or criticism, from the earliest 
Christian or Rabbinic fathers, to the theological schemer of the 
latest octavo, does not bear sad witness on its pages, to the won- 
derful infatuation which can force upon the. plainest and clearest 
declaration, a version elaborately figurative or painfully literal, 
just as may most comfortably cherish and confirm a doctrine, or 
notion, or prejudice, which the writer would fain " add to the 
things which are written in the book?" Can it be reasonably 
hoped, then, that this untaught effort to draw out the historical 
truth of the gospel, will be an exception to this harshly true judg- 
ment on the good, the learned, and the critical of past ages ? 

THE ENTRY INTO THE CITY. 

With these fruitless admonitions to his followers, Jesus passed 
on through Jericho to Bethphage, on the verge of the Holy city. 
Here, the enthusiastic and triumphant rejoicings, which the pre- 
sence of their Master called forth from the multitudes who were 
then swarming to Jerusalem from all parts of Palestine, must have 
lifted up the hearts of the apostles, with high assurance of the 
nearness of the honors for which they had so long looked and 
waited. Their irrepressible joy and exultation burst out in songs 
of triumph, as Jesus, after the manner of the ancient judges of 
Israel, rode into the royal seat of his fathers. And as he went 
down the descent of the Mount of Olives, to go into the city, the 
whole train of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God, with 
a loud voice, for all the mighty works which they had seen ; say- 
ing, " Blessed be the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of 
the Lord ! Peace in heaven ! Glory in the highest ! Blessed be the 
kingdom of our father David ! Hosanna !" These acclamations 
were raised by the disciples, and heartily joined in by the multi- 
tudes who knew his wonderful works, and more especially those 
who were acquainted with the very recent miracle of raising Laza- 



104 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

rus. A great sensation of wonder was created throughout the 
city, by such a burst of shouts from a multitude, sweeping in a 
long, imposing train, with palm branches in their hands, down the 
mountain, on which they could have been seen all over Jerusalem. 
As he entered the gates, all the city was moved to ask — " Who is 
this ?" And the rejoicing multitude said — " This is Jesus, the pro- 
phet of Nazareth in Galilee." What scorn did not this reply 
awaken in many of the haughty aristocrats of Jerusalem, to learn 
that all this solemn parade had been got up for no better purpose 
than merely to honor a dweller of that outcast region of mongrels, 
Galilee ! And of all places, that this prophet, so called, should 
have come from Nazareth ! A prophet from Galilee, indeed ! Was 
it from this half-heathen district, that the favored inhabitants of the 
capital of Judaism were to receive a teacher of religion ? Were 
the strict faith, and the rigid observances of their learned and de- 
vout, to be displaced by the presumptuous reformations of a self- 
taught prophet, from such a country ? Swelling with these feel- 
ings, the Pharisees could not repress a remonstrance with Jesus, 
against these noisy proceedings. But he, evidently affected with 
pleasure at the honest tribute thus wrung out in spite of sectional 
feeling, forcibly asserted the propriety and justice of this free of- 
fering of praise : — " I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, 
the stones would immediately cry out." 

Amid the loud hosannas that rung from the summit and slope 
of Olivet, giving utterance to the joy of the thronging thousands 
who roared their exulting welcome to the acknowledged Lord and 
King of Israel, one " still, small voice" was gently uplifted in tones 
of sorrow and mourning ; and while all other eyes flashed only 
wild rejoicing or amazement, his were wet with tears, — not of the 
pure joy that the good and the great may nobly feel in the hour 
of well-earned triumph, — not of the divine delight with which the 
just homage and adoration of those he came to redeem might well 
inspire the Son of God, — still less of the baser sympathies of hu- 
man pride or carnal ambition ; — but tears of grief, of compassion 
for human wretchedness, dimmed the splendors of the eye that 
glanced over heaven and earth, yet saw no created equal. While 
all " the mountains round about Jerusalem" were echoing from 
west to east the shouts that spoke only joy, and while the depths 
of the valley were sending the notes of praise back to the rock 
and up to the lofty colonnades of the temple, — he, the adored of 
all adorers, the joy and hope of thousands, wept — even for those 



105 

who rejoiced in his coming, as well as for the malignant few who 
looked on and listened with scorn. — " When he was come near, he 
beheld the city, and wept over it, saying — ' O ! that thou hadst 
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that are for 
thy peace ; but now they are hidden from thine eyes. For the 
day shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall draw a trench 
around thee, and shall encompass thee, and enclose thee on every 
side, and shall level thee to the ground, and thy children within 
thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another ; be- 
cause thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.' " From the 
western side of Olivet, his eye glanced on the Holy city, encir- 
cled by the amphitheatric range of mountains, which completely 
enclosed it from the distant pilgrim's view, except where the lofty 
golden roof and white columns of the eastern front of the temple 
flashed with peculiar brightness over the highths. Jerusalem, — 
the desire of all Israel, the city of David, the peculiar dwelling- 
place of God's earthly presence, — here rose on the pilgrim's eye in 
a glory which no distant dream could ever have equaled. The 
light of ages illumined the scene ; and the glory of the Shechinah 
shone in the column of incense that rose over all in the smoke of 
the temple-sacrifice : — all that antiquity or religion could brighten 
and hallow came at once to view. Well might the heart of the 
Israelite bound with triumph and delight in such a prospect. Well 
might his exultation utter itself in hosannas, as he hailed the city 
in the presence of him who now came to bring back the glories 
of David to this their ancient seat. But other feelings moved the 
heart of him whose approach was the inspiration of that joy. No 
human feeling of patriotism or pride could overcome in his mind 
the prophetic perception of the fate that was so soon to dim and 
darken all those glories. Knowing with a certainty as clear as 
the remembrance of the past, the awful events which were so soon 
to occur within those walls, desolating its beauty and defiling its 
sanctity, — how could he feel any other than mournful sensations 
and sympathies for the place and the people ? — the place on which 
such horrible ruin was about to fall ! — the people who were to 
bring down that ruin by their future crimes against God and his 
Son, and were to sink in it to a woe that even his mercy could 
not avert ! 

With palm-branches in their hands. — This tree, the emblem of joy and triumph in 
every part of the world where it is known, was the more readily adopted on this oc- 
casion, by those who thronged to swell the triumphal train of Jesus of Nazareth, be- 
cause the palm grew along the way-side where they passed, and the whole mount was 



1C6 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

hardly less rich in this than in the far famed olive from which it drew its name. A 
proof of the abundance of the palm-trees on Olivet is found in the name of the vil- 
lage of Bethany, wi rvo, (beth-hene,) " house of dates," which shows that the tree which 
bore this fruit must have been plentiful there. The people, as they passed on with 
Jesus from this village, whence he started to enter the city, would therefore find this 
token of triumph hanging over their heads, and shading their path everywhere with- 
in reach ; and the emotions of joy at their approach to the city of God in the company 
of this good and mighty prophet, prompted them at once to use the expressive em- 
blems which hung so near at hand ; and which were alike within the reach of those 
who journeyed with Jesus, and those who came forth from the city to meet and escort 
him in. The presence of these triumphal signs would, of course, remind them at 
once of the feast of the tabernacles, the day on which, in obedience to the Mosaic sta- 
tute, all the dwellers of the city were accustomed to go forth to the mount, and bring 
home these branches with songs of joy. (Levit. xxiii. 40, Nehem. viii. 15, 16.) The 
remembrance of this festival at once recalled also the beautifully appropriate words 
of the noble national and religious hymn, which they always chanted in praise of the 
God of their fathers on that day, (see Kuinoel, Rosenmuller, Wolf, &c.) and which 
was so peculiarly applicable to him who now " came in the name of the Lord," to 
honor and to bless his people. (Ps. cxviii. 26.) — (See Lightfoot, Cent. Chor. 41.) 

The descent of the Mount of Olives. — To imagine this scene, with something of the 
force of reality, it must be remembered that the Mount of Olives, so often mentioned 
in the scenes of Christ's life, rose on the eastern side of Jerusalem, beyond the valley 
of the Kedron, whose little stream flowed between this mountain and Mount Moriah, 
on which the temple stood. Mount Olivet was much higher than any part of the city 
within its walls, and the most commanding and satisfactory view of the Holy city 
which modern travelers and draughtsmen have been able to present to us in a picture, 
is that from the more than classic summit of this mountain. The great northern 
road passing through Jericho approaches Jerusalem on its northeastern side, and 
comes directly over the top of Olivet, and as it mounts the ridge, it brings the Holy 
city in all its glory, directly on the traveler's view. 

Hosanna. — This also is an expression taken from the same festal hymn, (Ps. cxviii. 
25.) Ma-njpww Qioshia-na) a pure Hebrew expression, as Drusius shows, and not Syri- 
ac, (See Poole's Synopsis on Matt. xxi. 9,) but corrupted in the vulgar pronunciation 
of this frequently repeated hymn, into Hosanna. The meaning of the Hebrew is 
:t Save him" or " Be gracious to him," that is, in connexion with the words which fol- 
low in the gospel story, " Be gracious, O Lord, to the son of David." This is the 
same Hebrew phrase which, in the psalm above quoted, (verse 25,) is translated 
" Save now." The whole expression was somewhatlike the English " God save the 
king," in its import. 

Nazareth. — This city, in particular, had an odious name, for the general low char- 
acter of its inhabitants. The passage in John i. 46, shows in what estimation this city 
and its inhabitants were held, by their own neighbors in Galilee ; and the great scorn 
with which all Galileans were regarded by the Jews, must have redoubled their con- 
tempt of this poor village, so despised even by the despicable. The consequence was 
that the Nazarenes acquired so low a character, that the name became a sort of by- 
word for what was mean and foolish. (See Kuinoel on Matt. ii. 23, John i. 46. Also 
Rosenmuller on the former passage and Bloomfield on the latter.) 

Galilee. — In order to appreciate fully, the scorn and suspicion with which the 
Galileans were regarded by the citizens of Jerusalem, a complete view of their 
sectional peculiarities would be necessary. Such a view will hereafter be given in 
connexion with a passage which more directly refers to those peculiarities, and more 
especially requires illustration and explanation. 

The account of the weeping of Jesus over Jerusalem is given only by Luke, (xix. 
41 — 44.) Those points in which the forms of expression in Christ's words are 
changed from the common translation, are in accordance with the standard commen- 
tators. (See Poole's Synopsis, Doddridge's Expositor, Kuinoel, &c. in loc.) 

THE BLIGHTING OF THE FIG-TREE. 

Having thus, by his public and triumphant entrance into Jeru- 
salem, defied and provoked the spite of the higher orders, while 
he secured an attentive hearing from the common people, when 



107 

he should wish to teach them, — Jesus retired at evening, for the 
sake of quiet and comfort, to the house of his friends, Lazarus, 
Mary, and Martha, at Bethany, in the suburbs. The next morn- 
ing, as he was on his way with his disciples, coming back from 
this place to Jerusalem, hungry with the fatigues of his long walk, 
he came to a fig-tree, near the path, hoping to find fruit for his re- 
freshment, as it seemed from a distance flourishing with abun- 
dance of leaves, and was then near the season of bearing. But 
when he came near, he found nothing but leaves on it, for it was 
somewhat backward, and its time of producing figs was not yet. 
And Jesus, seizing the opportunity of this disappointment to im- 
press his disciples with his power, personifying the tree, denounced 
destruction against it, — " May no man eat fruit of thee hereafter, 
forever." And his disciples heard it. They returned to Bethany, 
as usual, that evening, to pass the night ; but as they passed, pro- 
bably after dark, they took no notice of the fig-tree. But the next 
morning, as they went back to the city, they saw that it had dried 
up from the roots. Simon Peter, always ready to notice the in- 
stances of his Master's power, called out in surprise to Jesus, to 
witness the effect of his malediction upon its object. " Master, 
behold, the fig-tree which thou didst curse, is withered away." 
Jesus noticing their amazement at the apparent effect of his words, 
in so small a matter, took occasion to turn their attention to other 
and higher objects of faith, on which they might exert their zeal 
in a spirit, not of withering denunciation and destroying wrath, 
such as they had seen so tremendously efficient in this case, but 
in the spirit of love and forgiveness, as well as of the holy energy 
that could overthrow and overcome difficulties, not less than to 
uproot Mount Olivet from its everlasting base, and hurl it into 
the wide rolling, distant sea. 

THE DISCUSSIONS WITH THE SECTARIES. 

The disciples steadily remained the diligent and constant at- 
tendants of their heavenly teacher, in his long and frequent sea- 
sons of instruction in the temple, where he boldly met the often 
renewed attacks of his various adversaries, whether Herodians, 
scribes, Pharisees, or Sadducees ; and in spite of their long-trained 
subtleties, beat them out and out, with the very weapons at which 
they thought themselves so handy. The display of genius, of 
taste, of learning, of ready and sarcastic wit, and of heart-search- 
ing acuteness^ was so amazing and superhuman, that these few 
15 



108 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

days of open discussion established his divinely intellectual supe- 
riority over all the elaborate science of his accomplished opponents, 
and at the same time secured the fulfilment of his destiny, by the 
spite and hatred which their repeated public defeats excited in 
them. Imagine their rage. Exposed thus before the people, by 
whom they had hitherto been regarded as the sole depositaries of 
learning, and adored as the fountains of right, they saw all their 
honors and power, to which they had devoted the intense study of 
their whole lives, snatched coolly and easily from them, by a name- 
less, untaught pretender, who was able to hold them up, baffled 
and disgraced, for the amusement of the jeering multitude. Here 
was ground enough for hatred, — the hatred of conceited and in- 
tolerant false learning, against the discerning soul that had stripped 
and humbled it, — the hatred of confident ambition against the 
heroic energy which had discomfited it, and was doing much to 
free a long enslaved people from the yoke which formal hypocrisy 
and empty parade had long laid on them. And again, the into- 
lerable thought that all this heavy disgrace had been brought on 
the learned body of Judaism by a Galilean ! a mere carpenter of 
the lowest orders, who had come up to Jerusalem followed by a 
select train of rude fishermen and outcast publicans ; and who^ 
not being able to command a single night's lodging in the city, 
was in the habit of boarding and lodging in a paltry suburb, on 
the charity of some personal friends, from which place he quietly 
walked in for the distance of two miles every morning, to triumph 
over the palace-lodged heads of the Jewish faith. From such a 
man, thus humbly and even pitiably circumstanced, such an inva- 
sion and overthrow could not be endured ; and his ruin was ren- 
dered doubly easy by his very insignificance, which now consti- 
tuted the chief disgrace of their defeat. Never was cause more 
closely followed by its effect, than this insulted dignity was by its 
cruel vengeance. 



In preparing his disciples for the great events which were to 
take place in a few years, and which were to have a great influ- 
ence on their labors, Jesus foretold to them the destruction of the 
temple. As he was passing out through the mighty gates of the 
temple on some occasion with his disciples, one of them, admiring 
the gorgeous beauty of the architecture and the materials, with all 
the proudly exulting devotion of a patriotic and religious Jew, said 



llii 




109 

to him, " Master, see ! what stones and what buildings !" To him, 
Jesus replied with the awful prophecy, most shocking to the na- 
tional pride and religious associations of every Israelite, — that ere 
long, upon that glorious pile should fall a ruin so complete, that 
not one of those splendid stones should be left upon another. 
These words must have made a strong impression of wonder on 
all who heard them ; but no further details of the prophecy were 
given to the disciples at large. Not long afterwards, however, as 
he sat musingly by himself, in his favorite retirement, half-way up 
the Mount of Olives, over against the temple, the four most loved 
and honored of the twelve, Peter, James, John, and Andrew, came 
to him, and asked him privately, to tell them when these things 
should be, and by what omen they should know the approach of 
the great and woful ruin. Sitting there, they had a full view of 
the enormous pile which rose in immense masses very near them, 
on the verge of Mount Moriah, and was even terraced up, from 
the side of the slope, presenting a vast wall, rising from the depths 
of the deep ravine of Kedron, which separated the temple from 
Mount Olivet, where they were. It was morning when the con- 
versation took place, as we may fairly guess, for this spot lay on 
the daily walk to Bethany, where he lodged ; — the broad walls, 
high towers, and pillars of the temple, were doubtless illuminated 
by the full splendors of the morning sun of Palestine ; for Olivet 
was directly east of Jerusalem, and as they sat looking westward 
towards the temple, with the sun behind them, the rays, leaving 
their faces in the shade, would shine full and bright on all which 
crowned the highth beyond. It was at such a time, as the Jewish 
historian assures us, that the temple was seen in its fullest gran- 
deur and sublimity ; for the light, falling on the vast roofs, which 
were sheeted and spiked with pure gold, brightly polished, and 
upon the turrets and pinnacles which glittered with the same pre- 
cious metal, was reflected to the eye of the gazer with an insup- 
portable brilliancy, from the million bright surfaces and shining 
points which covered it. Here, then, sat Jesus and his four adoring 
chosen ones, with this splendid sight before them crowning the 
mountain, now made doubly dazzling by contrast with the deep 
gloom of the dark glen below, which separated them from it. 
There it was, that, with all this brightness and glory and beauty 
in their view, Jesus solemnly foretold in detail, the awful, total ruin 
which was to sweep it all away, within the short lives of those 
who heard him. Well might such words sink deep into their 



110 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

hearts, — words coming from lips whose perfect and divine truth 
they could not doubt, though the things now foretold must have 
gone wofully against all the dreams of glory, in which they had 
made that sacred pile the scene of the future triumphs of the faith 
and followers of Christ. This sublime prophecy, which need not 
here be repeated or descanted upon, is given at great length by all 
the three first evangelists, especially by Matthew. 

The view of the temple. — I can find no description by any writer, ancient or mo- 
dern, which gives so clear an account of the original shape of Mount Moriah, and 
of the modifications it underwent to fit it to support the temple, as that given by Jose- 
phus. (Jew. War, book V. chap, v.) In speaking of the original founding of the 
temple by Solomon, (Ant. book VIII. chap. iii. sec. 2,) he says, " The king laid the 
foundations of the temple in the very depths, [at the bottom of the descent,] using 
stones of a firm structure, and able to hold out against the attacks of time ; so that 
growing into a union, as it were, with the ground, they might be the basis and sup- 
port of the pile that was to be reared above, and through their strength below, easily 
bear the vast mass of the great superstructure, and the immense weight of ornament 
also ; for the weight of those things which were contrived for beauty and magnificence 
was not less than that of the materials which contributed to the highth and lateral di- 
mension." In the full description which he afterwards gives in the place first quoted, 
of the latter temple as perfected by Herod, which is the building to which the account 
in the text refers, he enters more fully into the mode of shaping the ground to the 
temple. " The temple was founded upon a peaked hill ; but in the first beginning of 
the structure there was scarcely flat ground enough on the top for the sanctuary and 
the altar, for it was abrupt and precipitous all around. And king Solomon, when 
he built the sanctuary, having walled it out on the eastern side, [eKraxicravros, that is, 
' having built out a wall on that side' for a terrace,] then reared upon the terraced 
earth a colonnade; but on the other sides the sanctuary was naked,— [that is, the wall 
was unsupported and unornamented by colonnades as it was on the east.] But in 
the course of ages, the people all the while beating down the terraced earth with their 
footsteps, the hill thus growing flat was made broader on the top ; and having taken 
down the wall on the north, they gained considerable ground which was afterwards 
enclosed within the outer court of the temple. Finally, having walled the hill en- 
tirely around with three terraces, and having advanced the work far beyond any hope 
that could have been reasonably entertained at first, spending on it long ages, and all 
the sacred treasures accumulated from the offerings sent to God from the ends of the 
world, they reared around it, both the upper courts and the lower temple, walling the 
latter up, in the lowest part, from a depth of three hundred cubits, [450 feet,] and 
in some places more. And yet the whole depth of the foundations did not show 
itself, because they had greatly filled up the ravines, with a view to bring them to a 
level with the streets of the city. The stones of this work were of the size of forty 
cubits; [60 feet;] for the profusion of means and the lavish zeal of the people advanced 
the improvements of the temple beyond account ; and a perfection far above all hope 
was thus attained by perseverance and time. (Jos., Jew. War, book V. chap. v. 
sec. 1.) 

" And well worthy of these foundations were the works which stood upon them. 
For all the colonnades were double, consisting of pillars twenty-five cubits [40 feet] 
in highth, each of a single stone of the whitest marble, and were roofed with fret- 
work of cedar. The natural beauty of these, their high polish and exquisite propor- 
tion, presented a most glorious show ; but their surface was not marked by the super- 
fluous embellishments of painting and carving. The colonnades were thirty cubits 
broad, [that is, forty-five feet from the front of the columns to the wall behind them ;] 
while their whole circuit embraced a range of six stadia, [more than three quarters 
of a mile !] including the castle of Antonia. And the whole hypethrum [vnaidpov, the 
floor of the courts or inclosures of the temple, which was exposed to the open air, 
there being no roof above it] was variegated by the stones of all colors with which it 
was laid," [making a sort of Mosaic pavement] (Sec. 2.) * * * * 

" The outside of the sanctuary, too, lacked nothing that could strike or dazzle the 
mind and eye. For it was on all sides overlaid with massy plates of gold, so that in 



Ill 

the first light of the rising sun, it shot forth a most fiery splendor, which turned 
away the eyes of those who compelled themselves (mid. Pia^ofxevovi) to gaze on it, as 
from the rays of the sun itself. To strangers, moreover, who were coming towards 
it, it shone from afar like a complete mountain of .snow : for where it was not covered 
with gold it was most dazzlingly white, and above on the roof it had golden spikes, 
sharpened to keep the birds from lighting on it. And some of the stones of the build- 
ing were forty-five cubits long, five high, and six broad 5" — [or sixty-seven feet long, 
seven and a half high, and nine broad.] (Sec. 6.) 

" The Antonia was placed at the angle made by the meeting of two colonnades of 
the outer temple, the western and the northern. It was built upon a rock, fifty cubits 
high, and precipitous on all sides. It was the work of king Herod, in which, most 
of all, he showed himself a man of magnificent conceptions." (Sec. 8.) * * * 

In speaking of Solomon's foundation, he also says, (Ant. book VIII. chap. iii. sec. 
9,) " But he made the outside of the temple wonderful beyond account, both in de- 
scription and to sight. For having piled up huge terraces, from which, on account of 
their immense depth, it was hardly possible to look down, and reared them to the 
highth of four hundred cubits, [six hundred feet!] he brought them to the same level 
with the hill's top on which the sanctuary {vadg) was built, and thus the open floor of 
the temple (hpov, or the outer court's inclosure) was level with the sanctuary.'" * * * 

I have drawn thus largely from the rich descriptions of this noble and faithful de- 
scriber of the old glories of the Holy Land, because this very literal new translation 
gives the exact details of the temple's aspect, in language as gorgeous as the most 
high-wrought in which it could be presented in a mere fancy picture of the same 
scene ; and because it will prove that my conception of its glory, 1 as it appeared to 
Christ and the four disciples who " sat over against it upon the Mount of Olives," is 
not overdrawn, since it is thus supported by the blameless and invaluable testimony 
of him who saw all this splendor in its most splendid day, and afterwards in its un- 
equaled beauty and with all its polished gold and marble, shining and sinking amid 
the flames, which swept it utterly away from his saddening eyes forever, to a ruin 
the most absolute and irretrievable that ever fell upon the works of man. 

This was the temple on which the sons of Jonah and Zebedee gazed, with the 
awful denunciation of its utter ruin falling from their Lord's lips, and such was the 
desolation to which those terrible words devoted it. This full description of its loca- 
tion shows the manner in which its terraced foundations descendect with their vast 
fronts, six hundred feet into the valley of Kedron, over which they looked. To give 
as clear an idea of the place where they sat, and its relations to the rest of the scene, 
I extract from Conder's Modern Traveler the following descriptions of Mount 
Olivet. 

" The Mount of Olives forms a part of a ridge of limestone hills, extending to the 
north and the southwest. Pococke describes it as having four summits. On the 
lowest and most northerly of these, which, he tells us, is called Sulman Tashy, the 
stone of Solomon, there is a large domed sepulchre, and several other Muhammedan 
tombs. The ascent to this point, which is. to the northeast of the city, he describes as 
very gradual, through pleasant corn-fields planted with olive-trees. The second 
summit is that which overlooks the city : the path to it rises from the ruined gardens 
of Gethsemane, which occupy part of the valley. About half-way up the ascent is a 
ruined monastery, built, as the monks tell us, on the spot where the Savior wept over 
Jerusalem. From this point the spectator enjoys, perhaps, the best view of the Holy 
City." (Here Jesus sat, in our scene.) 

" The valley of Jehoshaphat, which lies between this mountain and the hills on 
which Jerusalem is built, is still used as a burial-place by the modern Jews, as it was 
by their ancestors. It is, generally speaking, a rocky flat, with a few patches of 
earth here and there, about half a mile in breadth from the Kedron to the foot of 
Mount Olivet, and nearly of the same length from Siloa to the garden of Gethsemane. 
The Jews have a tradition, evidently founded on taking literally the passage in Joel iii. 
12, that this narrow valley will be the scene of the final judgment. The prophet Je- 
remiah evidently refers to the same valley under the name of the valley of the son 
of Hinnom, or the valley of Tophet, the situation being clearly marked as being by 
the entry of the east gate. (Jer. xix. 2, 6.) Pococke places the valley of Hinnom 
to the south of Jerusalem, but thinks it might include part of that to the east. It 
formed part of the bounds between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, (Jos. xv. 8. 
xviii. 16,) but the description is somewhat obscure." (Mod. Trav. Palestine, pp. 
1G8, 172.) 

Conder, though usually so judicious and accurate in his topographical criticisms, 



112 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

seems here to have mistaken the situation of these two valleys. The words of Je- 
remiah, (xix. 6,) describing the valley of the son of Hinnom, or Tophet, as being 
" by the entry of the east gate," may be perfectly reconciled with the descriptions of 
travelers, who place this valley on the south side of Jerusalem. Fisk, the missionary, 
throws light on the difficulty, in describing his own route from the city to the valley 
of Tophet. He went out of the east gate of the city into the valley of the brook Ke- 
dron, (which is the same as the valley of Jehoshaphat,) and passing down that in a 
southerly direction, for a very short distance, to the southeastern angle of the hills 
on which the city stands, he " proceeded [from the brook Siloah, at this point] in a 
westerly direction to the valley of Hinnom, called also Tophet ;" and after going up 
this valley to its western end, re-entered the city at the " Jaffa gate," which is on the 
west side. The valley of Hinnom, or Tophet, seems therefore to have been a branch 
of the valley of Jehoshaphat, turning off from it near the east gate, probably, and 
running east and west along the south side of Zion, or the southern section of the 
city ; and the shortest way to it being from the east gate, and through that part of 
Jehoshaphat, the prophet might properly describe it, as he did. (Bond's Life of Fisk, 
pp. 289, 290.) Fisk says also—" We followed the bed of the Kedron at the foot of 
Mount Moriah. The hill is high and steep, and the wall of the city stands on its 
brink. On our left was Mount Olivet, still covered with olive-trees. * * * The 
valley of Jehoshaphat was deep with steep sides. This valley, we are told, runs to 
the Dead Sea, but how far it bears the same name we do not know." ''Bond's Life 
of Fisk, chap. x. p. 289.) 



THE LAST SUPPER. 

Meanwhile the offended and provoked dignitaries of Judaism 
were fast making arrangements to crush the daring innovator, who 
had done so much to bring their learning and their power into 
contempt. Some of the most fiery spirits among them, were for 
defying all risks, by seizing the Nazarene openly, in the midst oi 
his audacious denunciations of the higher orders ; and the attempt 
was made to execute this act of arbitraiy power ; but the mere 
hirelings sent upon the errand, were too much awed by the un- 
equaled majesty of the man, and by the strong attachment of the 
people to him, to be willing to execute their commission. But 
there were old heads among them, that could contrive safer and 
surer ways of meeting the evil. By them it was finally deter- 
mined to seize Jesus when alone or unattended by the throngs 
which usually encompassed him, — to hurry him at once secretly 
through the forms of law necessary for his commitment, and then 
to put him, as a condemned rioter and rebel, immediately into the 
hands of the Roman governor, who would be obliged to order his 
execution in such a way as that no popular excitement would 
rescue the victim from the grasp of the soldiery. This was the 
plan which they were now arranging, and which they were pre- 
pared to execute before the close of the passover, if they could get 
intelligence of his motions. These fatal schemes of hate could 
not have been unknown to Jesus ; yet the knowledge of them 
made no difference in his bold devotion to the cause for which he 



113 

came into the world. Anxious to improve the few fast fleeting 
hours that remained before the time of his sufferings should come 
on, and desirous to join as a Jew in this great national festival, 
by keeping it in form with his disciples, he directed his two most 
confidential apostles, Peter and John, to get ready the entertain- 
ment for them in the city, by an arrangement made with a man 
already expecting to receive them. This commission they faith- 
fully executed, and Jesus accordingly ate with his disciples the 
feast of the first day of the passover, in Jerusalem, with those who 
sought his life so near him. After the supper was over, he deter- 
mined to use the brief remnant of time for the purpose of uproot- 
ing that low feeling of jealous ambition which had already made 
so much trouble among them, in their anxious discussions as to 
who should be accounted the greatest, and should rank as the 
ruler of the twelve. To impress the right view upon their minds 
most effectually, he chose the oriental mode of a ceremony which 
should strike their senses, and thus secure a regard and remem- 
brance for his words which they might fail in attaining if they 
were delivered in the simple manner of trite and oft-spoken oral 
truisms. He therefore rose after supper, and leaving his place at 
the head of the table, he laid aside his upper garments, which, 
though appropriate and becoming him as a teacher, in his hours 
of public instruction or social communion, were yet inconvenient 
in any active exertion which needed the free use of the limbs. 
Being thus disrobed, he took the position and character of a menial 
upon him, and girding himself with a towel, he poured water into 
a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet in it, wiping them 
with his towel. He accordingly comes to Simon Peter, in the dis- 
charge of his servile office ; but Peter, whose ideas of the majesty 
and ripening honors of his Master were shocked at this extraordi- 
nary action, positively refused to be even the passive instrument 
of such an indignity to one so great and good, — first inquiring, 
" Lord, dost thou wash my feet ?" Jesus, in answer, said to him, 
" What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know here- 
after." That is — " this apparently degrading act has a hidden, 
useful meaning, at this moment beyond your comprehension, but 
which you will learn in due time." Peter, however, notwith- 
standing this plain and decided expression of Christ's wise deter- 
mination to go through this painful ceremony, for the instruction 
of those who so unwillingly submitted to see him thus degraded, 
— still led on by the fiery ardor of his own headlong genius, — 
16 



114 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

manfully persisted in his refusal, and expressed himself in the 
most positive terms possible, saying to Jesus, " Thou shalt never 
wash my feet." Jesus answered, " If I wash thee not, thou hast 
no part with me." This solemn remonstrance had the effect of 
checking Peter's too forward reverence, and in a tone of deeper 
submission to the wise will of his Master, he yielded, replying, 
however, " Lord, wash not my feet only, but also my hands and 
my head." Since so low an office was to be performed by one so 
venerated, he would not have the favor of his blessed touch con- 
fined to the baser limbs, but desired that the nobler parts of the 
body should share in the holy ablution. But the high purpose of 
Jesus could not accommodate itself to the whims of his zealous 
disciple ; for his very object was to take the humblest attitude be- 
fore them, by performing those personal offices which were usually 
committed to slaves. He therefore told Peter — " He that is washed 
needs not, save to wash his feet, but is clean in every part ;" — a 
very familiar and expressive illustration, alluding to the circum- 
stance that those who have been to a bath and there washed them- 
selves, will on their return find themselves wholly clean, except 
such dust as may cling to their feet as they have passed through 
the streets on their route. And any one may feel the force of 
the beautiful figure, who has ever gone into the water for the pur- 
poses of cleanliness and refreshment, on a warm summer's day in 
this country, and has found by experience that, after all possible 
ablution, on coming out and dressing himself, his wet feet in con- 
tact with the ground have become loaded with dirt which demands 
new diligence to remove it ; and as all who have tried it know, it 
requires many ingenious efforts to return with feet as clean as they 
came to the washing ; and in spite of all, after the return, an in- 
spection may forcibly illustrate the truth, that " he that is washed, 
though he is clean in every part, yet needs to wash his feet." Such 
was the figure with which Jesus expressed to his simple-minded 
and unlettered disciples, the important truth,' that since they had 
been already washad, (baptized by John or himself,) if that wash- 
ing had been effectual, they could need the repurification only of 
their feet — the cleansing away of such of the world's impure 
thoughts and feelings as had clung to them in their journey ings 
through it. So, after he had washed their feet, and had taken his 
garments and sat down again, he said to them, " Know ye what I 
have done to you ? Ye call me Master and Lord ; and ye say well, 
for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your 



115 

feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given 
you this as an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 
Truly the servant is not greater than his lord, neither is the em- 
bassador greater than him that sent him. If ye know these things, 
happy are ye if ye do them ;" — a charge so clear and simple, and 
so full, that it needs not a word of comment to show any reader 
the full force of this touching ceremony. 

Shortly after, in the same place and during the same meeting, 
Jesus speaking to them of his near departure, affectionately and 
sadly said, " Little children, but a littje while longer am I with 
you. Ye shall seek me ; and as I said to the Jews, < whither I go, 
ye cannot come,' — so now I say to you." To this Simon Peter 
soon after replied by asking him, " Lord, -whither goest thou ?" 
Jesus answered him, " Whither I go, thou canst not follow me 
now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards." Peter perhaps begin- 
ning to perceive the mournful meaning of this declaration, replied, 
still urging, " Lord, why cannot I follow thee now ? I will lay 
down my life for thy sake." Jesus answered, " Wilt thou lay 
down thy life for my sake ? I tell thee assuredly, the cock shall 
not crow till thou hast denied me thrice." Soon after, at the same 
time and place, noticing the confident assurance of this chief dis- 
ciple, Jesus again warned him of his danger and his coming fall. 
" Simon ! Simon ! behold, Satan has desired to have you, (all,) that 
he may sift you as wheat ; but I have prayed for thee, (especially,) 
that thy faith fail not ■ and when thou art converted, strengthen 
thy brethren." Never before had higher and more distinctive favor 
been conferred on this chief apostle, than by this sad prophecy of 
danger, weakness, and sin, on which he was to fall, for a time, to his 
deep disgrace ; but on him alone, when rescued from ruin by his 
Master's peculiar prayers, was to rest the task of strengthening his 
brethren. But his Master's kind warning was for the present lost 
on his immovable self-esteem ; he repeated his former assurance 
of perfect devotion through every danger : — " Lord, I am ready to 
go with thee into prison and to death." Where was affectionate 
and heroic devotion ever more affectingly and determinedly ex- 
pressed ? What heart of common man would not have leaped to 
meet such love and fidelity ? But He, with an eye still clear and 
piercing, in spite of the tears with which affection might dim 
it, saw through the veil that would have blinded the sharpest 
human judgment, and coldly met these protestations of burning 
zeal with the chilling prediction again uttered : — " I tell thee, Peter, 



116 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

the cock shall not crow this day, before thou shalt thrice deny 
that thou knowest me." Then making a sudden transition, to 
hint to them the nature of the dangers which would soon try their 
souls, he suddenly reverted to their former security. " When I 
sent you forth without purse, or scrip, or shoes, did ye need any 
thing ?" And they said, " Nothing." Then said he to them, " But 
now, let him that has a purse, take it, and likewise his scrip ; and 
let him that has no sword sell his cloak and buy one." They 
had hitherto in their wanderings, everywhere found friends to 
support and protect them ; but now the world was at war with 
them, and they must look to their own resources both for supply- 
ing their wants and guarding their lives. His disciples readily 
apprehending some need of personal defense, at once bestirred 
themselves and mustered what arms they could on the spot, and 
told him that they had two swords among them ; and of these it 
appears that one was in the hands of Peter. It was natural enough 
that among the disciples these few arms were found, for they were 
all Galileans, who, as Josephus tells us, were very pugnacious 
in their habits ; and even the followers of Christ, notwithstanding 
their peaceful calling, had not entirely laid aside their former 
weapons of violence, which were the more needed by them, as the 
journey from Galilee to Jerusalem was made very dangerous by 
robbers, who lay in wait for the defenseless traveler wherever the 
nature of the ground favored such an attack. Of this character 
was that part of the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, alluded 
to in the parable of the wounded traveler and the good Samari- 
tan, — a region so wild and rocky that it has always been danger- 
ous, for the same reasons, even to this day ; of which a sad in- 
stance occurred but a few years ago, in the case of an eminent 
English traveler, who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell 
among thieves and was wounded near the same spot mentioned 
by Christ, in spite of the defenses with which he was provided. 
It was in reference to such dangers as these, that two of his dis- 
ciples had provided themselves with hostile weapons ; and Peter 
may have been instigated to carry his sword into such a peaceful 
feast, by the suspicion that the danger from the chief priests, to 
which Christ had often alluded, might more particularly threaten 
them while they were in the city by themselves, without the safe- 
guard of their numerous friends in the multitude. The answer 
of Jesus to this report of their means of resistence was not in a 
tone to excite them to the very zealous use of them. He simply 



117 

said — « it is enough f a phrase which was meant to quiet them, by 
expressing his little regard for such a defense as they were able to 
offer to him, with this contemptible armament. 

Some have conjectured that this washing of the feet (page 113) was a usual rite at 
the Paschal feast. So Scaliger, Beza, Baronius, Casaubon, and other learned men 
have thought. (See Poole's Synopsis, on John xiii. 5.) But Buxtorf has clearly 
shown the falsity of their reasons, and Lightfoot has also proved that it was a per- 
fectly unusual thing, and that there is no passage in all the Rabinnical writings which 
refers to it as a custom. It is manifest indeed, to a common reader, that the whole 
peculiar force of this ablution, in this instance, consisted in its being an entirely un- 
usual act ; and all its beautiful aptness as an illustration of the meaning of Jesus, — 
that they should cease their ambitious strife for precedence, — is lost in making it any 
thing else than a perfectly new and original ceremony, whose impressiveness mainly 
consisted in its singularity. Lightfoot also illustrates the design of Jesus still farther, 
by several interesting passages from the Talmudists, showing in what way the ablu- 
tion would be regarded by his disciples, who, like other Jews, would look upon it as 
a most degraded action, never to be performed except by inferiors to superiors. 
These Talmudic authorities declare, that " Among the duties to be performed by the 
wife to her husband, this was one,— that she should wash his face, his hands, and his 
feet." (Maimonides on the forties of women?) The same office was due from a son 
to his father, — from a slave to his master — as his references show ; but he says he can 
find no precept that a disciple should perform such a duty to his teacher, unless it be 
included in this, " The teacher should be more honored by his scholar than a 
father." 

He also shows that the feet were never washed separately, with any idea of legal 
purification,— though the Pharisees washed their hands separately with this view, 
and the priests washed their hands and feet both, as a form of purification, but never 
the feet alone. And he very justly remarks upon all this testimony, that " the farther 
this action of Christ recedes from common custom, the higher its fitness for their in- 
struction, — being performed not merely for an example, but for a precept. (Light- 
foot's Hor. Heb. in ev. Joh. xiii. 5.) 

Laid aside his garments. — The simple dress of the races of western Asia, is always 
distinguishable into two parts or sets of garments, — an inner, which covered more or 
less of the body, fitting it tightly, but not reaching far over the legs or arms, and con- 
sisted either of a single cloth folded round the loins, or a tunic fastened with a girdle ; 
sometimes also a covering for the thighs was subjoined, making something like the 
rudiment of a pair of breeches. (See Jahn Arch. Bib. § 120.) These were the perma- 
nent parts of the dress, and were always required to be kept on the body, by the com- 
mon rules of decency. But the second division of the garments, (" superindumenta" 
Jahn,) thrown loosely over the inner ones, might be laid aside on any occasion, when 
active exertion required the most unconstrained motion of the limbs. One of these 
was a simple oblong, broad piece of cloth, of various dimensions, but generally about 
three yards long and two broad, which was wrapped around the body like a mantle, 
the two upper corners being drawn over the shoulders in front, and the rest hanging 
down the back, and falling around the fiont of the body, without any fastenings but 
the folding of the upper corners. This garment was called by the Hebrews rV?ntr or 
T\rhv % (simlah or salmah,) and sometimes itt, (begedh ;) — by the Greeks, l^dnov, {hi- 
mation.) Jahn, Arch. Bib. This is the garment which is always meant by this Greek 
word in the New Testament, when used in the singular number,— translated " cloak" 
in the common English version, as in the passage in the text above, where Jesus ex- 
horts him that has no sword to sell his cloak and buy one. When this Greek word 
occurs in the plural, (IfxaTia, himatia,) it is translated " garments," and it is notice- 
able that in most cases where it occurs, the sense actually requires that it should be 
understood only of the outer dress, to which I have referred it. As in Matt. xxi. 8, 
where it is said that the people spread their garments in the way, — of course only 
their outer ones, which were loose and easily thrown off, without indecent exposure. 
So in Mark xi. 7, 8 ; Luke xix. 35. There is no need then of supposing, as Origen 
does, that Jesus took off all his clothes, or was naked, in the modern sense of the term. 
A variety of other outer garments in common use both among the early and the later 
Jews, are described as minutely by Jahn in his Archaeologia Biblica, § 122. I shall 
have occasion to describe some of these, in illustration of other passages. 

My exegesis of the passage, " He that is washed, needs not," &c. may strike some as 



118 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

rather bold in its illustration, yet if great authorities are necessary to support the view 
I have taken, I can refer at once to a legion of commentators, both ancient and mo- 
dern, who all offer the same general explanation, though not exactly the same illus- 
tration. Poole's Synopsis is rich in references to such. Among these Vatablus re- 
marks on the need of washing the feet of one already washed, " scil. viae causa. 1 * 
Medonachus says of the feet, " quos calcata terra iterum inquinat." Hammond says, 
" he that hath been initiated, and entered into Christ, &c. is whole clean, and hath no 
need to be so washed again, all over. All that is needful to him is the daily minis- 
tering of the word and grace of Christ, to cleanse and wash off the frailties, and im- 
perfections, and lapses of our weak nature, those feet of the soul." Grotius says, 
" Hoc tantum opus ei est, ut ab iis se purget quae ex occasione nascuntur. Simili- 
tudo sumpta ab his qui a balnco nudis pedibus abeunt." Besides these and many others 
largely quoted by Poole, Lampe also (in com. in ev. Joh.) goes very fully into the 
same view, and quotes many others in illustration. Wolfius (in Cur. Philol.) gives 
various illustrations, differing in no important particular, that I can see, from each 
other, nor from that of Kuinoel, who calls them " contortas expositiones," but gives 
one which is the same in almost every part, but is more fully illustrated in detail, by 
reference to the usage of the ancients, of going to the bath before coming to a feast, 
which the disciples no doubt had done, and made themselves clean in all parts except 
their feet, which had become dirtied on the way from the bath. This is the same 
view which Wolf also quotes approvingly from Eisner. Wetstein is also on this 
point, as on all others, abundantly rich in illustrations from classic usage, to which 
he refers in a great number of quotations from Lucian, Herodotus, Plato, Terence, 
and Plutarch. 

Sift you as wheat. — The word aiviafa (siniazo) refers to the process of winnowing 
the wheat after threshing, rather than sifting in the common application of the term, 
which is to the operation of separating the flour from the bran. In oriental agriculture 
the operation of winnowing is performed without any machinery, by simply taking 
up the threshed wheat in a large shovel, and shaking "it in such a way that the grain 
may fall out into a place prepared on the ground, while the wind blows away the chaff. 
The w r hole operation is well described in the fragments appended to Taylor's editions 
of Calmet's dictionary, (Hund. i. No. 48, in Vol. III.) and is there illustrated by a 
plate. The phrase then, was highly expressive of a thorough trial of character, or 
of utter ruin, by violent and overwhelming misfortune, and as such is often used in 
the Old Testament. As in Jer. xv. 7, " I will fan them with a fan," &c. Also in 
li. 2. In Ps. cxxxix. 2, " Thou wirmowest my path." &c. ; com. trans. " Thou cfm- 
passest my path." The same figure is effectively used by John the Baptist, in Matt. 
iii. 12, and Luke iii. 17. 

GalileoM pugnacity.— Josephus, who was very familiar with the Galileans by his 
military service among them, thus characterizes them. " The Galileans are fighters 
even from infancy, and are everywhere numerous ; nor are they capable of fear." 
Jew. War, book III. chap. iii. sec. 2. 

From Jerusalem to Jericho. — The English traveler here referred to, is Sir Frederic 
Henniker, who, in the year 1820, met with this calamity, which he thus describes in 
his travels, pp. 284—289. 

" The route is over hills, rocky, barren, and uninteresting; we arrived at a foun- 
tain, and here my two attendents paused to refresh themselves ; the day was so hot 
that I was anxious to finish the journey, and hurried forwards. A ruined building 
situated on the summit of a hill was now within sight, and I urged my horse towards 
it; the janissary galloped by me, and making signs for me not to precede him, he 
rode into and round the building, and then motioned me to advance. We next came 
to a bill, through the very apex of which has been cut a passage, the rocks overhang- 
ing it on either side, (duaresmius, (lib. vi. c. 2,) quoting Brocardus, 200 years past, 
mentions that there is a place horrible to the eye, and full of danger, called Abdomin, 
which signifies blood; where he, descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among 
thieves.) I was in the act of passing through this ditch, when a bullet whizzed by, 
close to my head ; I saw no one, and had scarcely time to think, when another was 
fired some distance in advance. I could yet see no one, — the janissary was beneath 
the brow of the hill, in his descent ; I looked back, but my servant was not yet within 
sight. I looked up, and within a few inches of my head were three muskets, and 
three men taking aim at me. Escape or resistence were alike impossible. I got off 
my horse. Eight men jumped down from the rocks, and commenced a scramble for 
me ; I observed also a party running towards Nicholai. At this moment the janis- 
sary galloped among us with his sword drawn. ****** 



119 

" A sudden panic seized the janissary; he called on the name of the Prophet, and 
galloped away. As he passed, I caught at a rope hanging. from his saddle. I had 
hoped to leap upon his horse, but found myself unable ;— my feet were dreadfully 
lacerated by the honey-combed rocks— nature would support me no longer — I fell, 
but still clung to the rope. In this manner I was drawn some few yards, till, bleed- 
ing from my ancle to my shoulder, I resigned myself to my fate. As soon as I stood 
up, one of my pursuers took aim at me, but the other casually advancing between us, 
prevented his firing ; he then ran up and with his sword aimed such a blow as would 
not have required a second ; his companion prevented its full effect, so that it merely 
cut my ear in halves, and laid open one side of my face ; they then stripped me 
naked. ********** 

" It was now past mid-day, and burning hot; I bled profusely, — and two vultures, 
whose business it is to consume corpses, were hovering over me. I should scarcely 
have had strength to resist, had they chosen to attack me. * * At length we arrived, 
about 3 P. M., at Jericho. — My servant was unable to lift me from the ground ; the 
janissary was lighting his pipe, and the soldiers were making preparations to pursue 
the robbers; not one person would assist a half-dead Christian. After some minutes 
a few Arabs came up and placed me by the side of the horse-pond, just so that I could 
not dip my finger into the Vater. This pool is resorted to by every one in search of 
water, and that employment falls exclusively upon females; — they surrounded me, 
and seemed so earnest in their sorrow, that, notwithstanding their veils, I almost 
felt pleasure at my wound. One of them in particular held her pitcher to my lips, 
till she was sent away by the Chous ; — I called her, she returned, and was sent away 
again; and the third time, she was turned out of the yard. She wore a red veil, (the 
sign of not being married,) and therefore there was something unpardonable in her 
attention to any man, especially to a Christian ; she however returned with her mo- 
ther, and brought "me some milk. I believe that Mungo Park, on some dangerous 
occasion during his travels, received considerable assistance from the compassion- 
ate sex." 

THE SCENES OF GETHSEMANE. 

After much more conversation and prayer with his disciples in 
the supper-room, and having sung the hymn of praise which 
usually concluded the passover feast among the Jews, Jesus went 
out with them west of the city, over the brook Kedron, at the 
foot of the Olive mount, where there was a garden, called 
Gethsemane, to which he had often resorted with his disciples, — 
it being retired as well as pleasant. While they were on the way, 
a new occasion happened of showing Peter's self-confidence, 
which Jesus again rebuked with the prediction that it would too 
soon fail him. He was telling them all, that events would soon 
happen that would overthrow their present confidence in him, and 
significantly quoted to them the appropriate passage in Zecha- 
riah, — " I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." 
Peter, glad of a new opportunity to assert his steadfast adherence 
to his Master, again assured him that, though all should be of- 
fended or lose their confidence in him, yet would not he ; but 
though alone, wouM always maintain his present devotion to him. 
The third time did Jesus reply, in the circumstantial prediction of 
his near and certain fall, — " This day, even this night, before the 
cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice." This repeated dis- 






120 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

trustful and reproachful denunciation, became, at last, too much 
for Peter's warm temper ; and in a burst of offended zeal, he de- 
clared the more vehemently — " If I should die with thee, I will not 
deny thee in any wise." To this solemn protestation against the 
thought of defection, all the other apostles present gave their word 
of hearty assent. 

They now reached the garden, and when they had entered it, 
Jesus spoke to all the disciples present, except his three chosen 
ones, saying — " Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder." He re- 
tired accordingly into some recess of the garden, with Peter and 
the two sons of Zebedee, James and John ; and as soon as he was 
alone with them, begun to give utterance to feelings of deep dis- 
tress and depression of spirits. Leaving them, with the express 
injunction to keep awake and wait for him, he went for a short 
time still farther, and there, in secret and awful wo, that wrung 
from his bowed head the dark sweat of an unutterable agony, yet 
in submission to God, he prayed that the horrible suffering and 
death to which he had been so sternly devoted, might not light 
on him. Returning to the three appointed watchers, he found 
them asleep ! Even as amid the lonely majesty of Mount Hermon, 
human weakness had borne down the willing spirit in spite of the 
sublime character of the place and the persons before them ; so 
here, not the groans of that beloved suffering Lord, for whom they 
had just expressed such deep regard, could keep their sleepy eyes 
open, when they were thus exhausted with a long day's agitating 
incidents, and were rendered still more dull and stupid by the 
chilliness of the evening air, as well as the lateness of the hour of 
the night ; for it was near ten o'clock. At this sad instance of 
the inability of their minds to overcome the frailties of the body, 
after all their fine protestations of love and zeal, he mildly and 
mournfully remonstrates with Peter in particular, who had been 
so far before the rest in expressing a peculiar interest in his Mas- 
ter. And he said to Peter — " Simon ! sleepest thou 7 What ! could 
ye not watch with me one hour ? Watch ye and pray, lest ye 
enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh 
is weak." Well might he question thus the constancy of the fiery 
zeal which had so lately inspired Peter to those expressions of 
violent attachment. What ! could not all that^arm devotion, that 
high pride of purpose, sustain his spirit against the effects of fa- 
tigue and cold on his body ? But they had, we may suppose, crept 
into some shelter from the cold night air, where they uncon- 






peter's discipleship. 121 



sciously forgot themselves. After having half-roused them with 
this fruitless appeal, he left them, and again passed through anoth* 
er dreadful struggle between his human and divine nature. The 
same strong entreaty, — the same mournful submission — were ex- 
pressed as before, in that moment of solitary agony, till again he 
burst away from the insupportable strife of soul, and came to see 
if yet sympathy in his sorrows could keep his sleepy disciples 
awake. But no ; the gentle rousing he had before given them 
had hardly broken their slumbers. For a few moments the voice 
of their Master, in tones deep and mournful with sorrow, might 
have recalled them to some sense of shame for their heedless stu- 
pidity ; and for a short time their wounded pride moved them to 
an effort of self-control. A few mutual expostulations in a sleepy 
tone, would pass between them, — an effort at conversation per* 
haps, about the incidents of the day, and the prospect of coming 
danger which their Master seemed to hint, — some wonderings 
probably, as to what could thus lead him apart to dark and lonely 
devotion, — very likely, too, some complaint about the cold, — a 
shiver, — then a movement to find some warmer attitude, and a 
wrapping closer in mantles, — then the conversation languishing, 
replies coming slower and duller, the attitude meanwhile declining 
from the perpendicular to the horizontal, till at last the most wake- 
ful waits in vain for an answer to one of his drowsy remarks, and 
finds himself speaking to deaf ears, — and finally, overcome with 
impatience at them and himself, he sinks down into his former 
deep repose, with a half-murmured reproach to his companions on 
his lips. In short, as every one knows who has passed through 
such trials, three sleepy men will hardly keep awake the better 
for each other's company ; but so far from it, on the contrary, the 
force of sympathy will increase the difficulty, and the very sound 
of drowsy voices will serve to lull all the sooner into slumber. In 
the case of the apostles, too, who were mostly men accustomed to 
an active life, and who were in the habit of going to bed as soon 
as it was night, whenever their business allowed them to rest, all 
their modes of life served to hasten the slumbers of men so little 
inured to self-control of any kind. On this occasion these causes 
were sufficient to enchain their senses, in spite of the repeated ex- 
hortations of Jesus ; for on his coming to them a second time, and 
saying in a warning voice—" Rise and pray, lest ye enter into 
temptation ; why sleep ye ?" — they wist not what to answer him, for 
their eyes were very heavy, and they slept for sorrow. Still again 



122 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

he retired about a stone's throw from them, as before, and there, 
prone on the ground, he renewed the strife with his feelings. 
Alone, without the sympathy of friends, did the Redeemer of men 
endure the agonies of that hour, yet not wholly alone nor unsup- 
ported ; for, as Luke assures us, there appeared to him an angel 
from heaven, strengthening him. At last the long struggle ceased. 
Distant voices coming over the glen through the stillness of the 
night, and the glare of torches flashing from the waters of the 
Kedron through the shades of the garden, gave him notice that 
those were near who came to drag him to a shameful death. Yet 
that repugnance of nature with which his late strife had been so 
dreadful, was now so overcome that he shrank not from the ap- 
proaching death, but calmly walked to meet it. Coming forward 
to his sleeping disciples, he said to them — " Sleep on now and take 
your rest ; behold, the time is at hand when the son of man is be- 
trayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us be going." The 
rush of the armed bands of the temple guards followed his words, 
and when the apostles sprung to their feet, their drowsiness was 
most effectually driven off by the appalling sight of a crowd of 
fierce men, filling the garden and surrounding them. As soon as 
the leaders of the throng could overcome the reverence which 
even the lowest of their followers had for the majestic person of 
the Savior, they brought them up to the charge ; and a retainer of 
the high priest, by name Malchus, with the forward officiousness of 
an insolent menial, laid hold of Jesus. Now was the time for 
Galilean pugnacity to show itself. The disciples around instantly 
asked, " Lord, shall we smite with the sword ?" But without wait- 
ing for an answer, Peter, though amazed by this sudden and fright- 
ful attack, as soon as he saw the body of his adored Master pro- 
faned by the rude hands of base hirelings, readiest in action as in 
word, regardless of numbers, leaped on the assailants with drawn 
sword, and with a movement too quick to be shunned, he gave the 
foremost a blow, which, if the darkness had not prevented, might 
have been fatal. As it was, there could not have been a more 
narrow escape ; for the sword lighting on the head of the priest's 
zealous servant, just grazed his temple and cut off his ear. But 
this display of courage was, after all, fruitless ; for he was sur- 
rounded by a great body of men, armed in the expectation of this 
very kind of resistence ; and in addition to this, the remonstrance 
of Jesus must have been sufficient to damp the most fiery valor. 
He said to his zealous and fierce defender — " Put up thy sword 



123 

again into its sheath, for they that take the sword shall perish by 
the sword. The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not 
drink ? Thinkest thou that if I should now pray to my Father, he 
would not instantly send me twelve legions of angels at a word ? 
But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it 
must be thus ?" Having thus stopped the ineffectual and dangerous 
opposition of his few followers, he quietly gave himself up to his 
captors, interceding however for his poor, friendless, and unpro- 
tected disciples. " I am Jesus of Nazareth ; if therefore you seek 
me, let these go their way." This he said as it were in refer- 
ence to a literal and corporeal fulfilment of the words which he 
had used in his last prayer with his disciples, — " Of them whom 
thou gavest me I lost none." The disciples, after receiving from 
Jesus such a special command to abstain from resistence, and per- 
ceiving how utterly desperate was the condition of affairs, without 
waiting the decision of the question, all forsaking him, fled ; and 
favored by darkness and their familiar knowledge of the grounds, 
they escaped in various directions. 

Gethsemane. — This place has already been alluded to in the description of Mount 
Olivet. (Note on p. 111.) From the same source I extract a further brief notice of 
the present aspect of this most holy ground. " Proceeding along the valley of Kedron, 
at the foot of Mount Olivet, is the garden of Gethsemane : an even plat of ground, 
not above fifty-seven yards square, where are shown some old olive-trees, supposed 
to identify the spot to which our Lord was wont to repair. John xviii. 1, 2." (Mod. 
Trav. Palestine, p. 156.) It is also remarked by Dr. Richardson, (p. 78 of the same 
work,) that " the gardens of Gethsemane are still in a sort of a ruined cultivation; 
the fences are broken down, and the olive-trees decaying, as if the hand that dressed 
and fed them was withdrawn." 

I know of no traveler who has better represented the relative situation of these 
places than Fisk, the missionary, who seems always to have plainly described things 
just as he saw them, and has therefore been remarkably successful in giving cor- 
rect impressions of localities. He thus describes the path which he took in going 
over the same ground which was traversed by Jesus on that eventful night. — " We 
went out at Stephen's gate, which is sometimes called the sheep-gate, — [on the east 
side of the city, towards Olivet.] We then descended the hill, passed the bed of the 
brook Kedron, which contains no water except in the rainy season, and then came 
to the garden of Gethsemane, one of the most affecting and interesting spots on earth. 
It is a small plat of ground, with a low enclosure of stones. In it stand eight venerable- 
looking olives, which seem as if they might have remained there from time immemo- 
rial. The side of the hill was full of armed Turks of fierce appearance, occasionally 
firing off their muskets for amusement." (Bond's Life of Fisk, chap. x. p. 289.) 

The etymology and meaning of the name Gethsemane are given by Lightfoot, (Cen- 
tur. Chorog. in Matt. cap. 41.) The name is derived from the product of the tree 
which was so abundantly raised there, and which gave name also to the mountain. 
Gethsemane is compounded of ru, (gath,) " a press," and nsdip, {shemena^S " olive oil," 
— " an oil-press ;" because the oil was pressed out and manufactured, on the spot 
where the olive was raised. 

Ten o'clock. — This I conclude to have been about the time, because (in Matt. xxvi. 
20) it is said that it was evening already, (that is, about 6 o'clock,) when Jesus sat 
down to supper with his disciples, and allowing time on the one hand for the events 
at the supper- table and on the walk, as well as those in the garden, — and, on the other 
hand, for those which took place before midnight, (cock-crowing,) we must fix the 
time as I have above. 



124 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

The glare of torches. — John (xviii. 3) is the only evangelist who brings this highly 
picturesque circumstance of the equipment of the band with the means of searching 
the dark shades and bowers of the garden. 

The armed bands, <$~c. — It has been supposed by some that this armed force was a 
part of the Roman garrison which was always kept in Castle Antonia, close by the 
temple; (see note on p. Ill ;) but there is nothing in the expressions of either of the 
evangelists which should lead us to think so; on the contrary, their statement most 
distinctly specifies, that those concerned in the arrest were from a totally different 
quarter. Matthew (xxvi. 47) describes them as " a great throng, with swords and 
staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people." The whole expression im- 
plies a sort of half-mob of low fellows, servants and followers of the members of the 
Sanhedrim, accompanying the ordinary temple-guard, which was a mere band of 
Levite peace-officers under the priests, whose business it was to keep order in the 
courts of the temple — a duty hardly more honorable than that of a sweeper or " door- 
keeper in the house of the Lord," from which office, indeed, it was probably not dis- 
tinct. These watchmen and porters, for they were no better, were allowed by the 
Roman government of the city and kingdom, a kind of contemptuous favor in bear- 
ing swords to defend from profane intrusion their holy shrine, which Gentile soldiers 
could not approach as guards, without violating the sanctity of the place. Such a 
body as these men and their chance associates, are therefore well and properly de- 
scribed by Matthew, as a " throng with swords and clubs ;" but what intelligent man 
would ever have thought of characterizing in this way a regular detachment of the 
stately and well-armed legion, which maintained the dignity and power of the Roman 
governor of Judea 1 Mark (xiv. 43) uses precisely the same expression as Matthew, 
to describe them: Luke (xxii. 52) represents Jesus as speaking to "the chief priests 
and captains of the temple and the elders, who had come against him, saying — ' Have 
you come out as against a thief, with swords and clubs V " John (xviii. 3) speaks of 
the band as made up in part of the servants of " the chief priests and Pharisees," 
&c. So that the whole matter, unquestionably, was managed and executed entirely 
by the Jews ; and the progress of the story shows that they did not call in the aid of the 
heathen secular power, until the last bloody act required a consummation which the 
ordinances of Rome forbade to the Jews, and then only did they summon the aid of 
the governor's military force. Indeed, they were too careful in preserving their few 
peculiar secular privileges still left, to give up the smallest power of tyrannizing, 
permitted by their Roman lords. 

HIS THREE-FOLD DENIAL. 

Peter, however, had not so soon forgot his zealous attachment 
to Jesus, as to leave him in such hands, without further know- 
ledge of his fate ; but as soon as he was satisfied that the pursuit 
of the disciples was given up, he in company with John, follow- 
ed the band of officers at safe distance, and ascertained whither 
they were carrying the captive. After they had seen the train 
proceed to the palace of the high priest, they went directly to 
the same place. Here John, being known to the high priest, 
and having friends in the family, went boldly in, feeling secure 
by his friendship in that quarter, against any danger in conse- 
quence of his connexion with Jesus. Being known to the ser- 
vant girl who kept the door, as a friend of the family, he got in 
without difficulty, and had also influence enough to get leave to 
introduce Peter, as a friend of his who had some curiosity to see 
what was going on. Peter, who had stood without the door wait- 
ing for the result of John's maneuvre, was now brought into the 
palace, and walked boldly into the hall where the examination of 



peter's discipleship. 125 

Jesus was going on, probably hoping to pass unnoticed by keep- 
ing in the dimly lighted parts of the hall, by which he would be 
secure, at the same time that he would the better see what was 
going on near the lights. Standing thus out of the way in the 
back part of the room, he might have witnessed the whole with- 
out incurring the notice of anybody. But the servants and 
others, who had been out over the dark valley of the Kedron feel- 
ing chilled with the walk, (for the long nights of that season are 
in Jerusalem frequently in strong contrast with the warmth of 
mid-day,) made up a good fire of coal in the back part of the hall, 
where they stood looking on. Peter himself being, too, no doubt 
thoroughly chilled with his long exposure to the cold night air, 
very naturally and unreflectingly came forward to the fire, where 
he sat down and warmed himself among the servants and soldiers. 
The bright light of the coals shining directly on his anxious face, 
those who stood by, noticing a stranger taking such interest in the 
proceedings, began to scrutinize him more narrowly. At last, the 
servant girl who had let him in at the door, with the inquisitive 
curiosity so peculiarly strong in her sex, knowing that he had come 
in with John as his particular acquaintance, and concluding that 
he was like him associated with Jesus, boldly said to him — " Thou 
also art one of this man's disciples." But Peter, (like a true Gali- 
lean, as ready to lie as to fight,) thinking only of the danger of the 
recognition, at once denied him, forgetting the lately offensive pre- 
diction in his sudden alarm. He said before them all—" Woman, I 
am not ! — I know him not ; neither do I understand what thou 
say est." This bold and downright denial silenced the impertinence 
of the girl, and for a time may have quieted the suspicions of those 
around. Peter, however, startled by this sudden attack, all at 
once perceived the danger into which he had unthinkingly thrust 
himself; and drawing back from his prominent station before the 
fire, which had made him so unfortunately conspicuous, he went 
out into the porch of the building, notwithstanding the cold night 
air, — preferring the discomfort of the exposure, to the danger of 
his late position. As he walked there in the open air, he heard 
the note of the cock, sounding clear through the stillness of mid- 
night, announcing the beginning of the third watch. The sound 
had a sad import to him, and must have recalled to his mind some 
thought of his Master's warning ; but before it could have made 
much impression, it was instantly banished altogether from his 
mind, by a new alarm from the inquisitiveness of some of the re- 



126 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tainers of the palace, who, seeing a stranger lurking in a covert 
manner about the building at that time of night, very naturally- 
felt suspicious enough of him to examine his appearance narrowly. 
Among those who came about him, was another of those pert dam- 
sels who seem to have been so forward about the house of the head 
of the Jewish faith. She, after a satisfactory inspection of the 
suspicious person, very promptly informed those that were there 
also about him — " This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth." 
Peter's patience being worn out with these spiteful annoyances, he 
not only flatly contradicted the positive assertion of the girl, but back- 
ed his words with an oath, which seems to have had the decisive ef- 
fect of hushing his female accusers entirely, and he considered him- 
self to have turned off suspicion for a time so effectually, that, after 
cooling himself sufficiently in the porch, being distracted with 
anxiety about the probable fate of his beloved Master, he at last ven- 
tured again into the great hall of the palace, where the examina- 
tion of Jesus was still going on. Here he remained a deeply in- 
terested spectator and auditor for about an hour, without being dis- 
turbed, when some of the bystanders who were not so much inter- 
ested in the affair before them as to be prevented by it from looking 
about them, had their attention again drawn to the stranger who 
had been an object of such suspicion. There were probably more 
than one that recognized the active and zealous follower of the Na- 
zarene, as Peter had been in such constant attendence on him 
throughout his whole stay in Jerusalem. But no one seems to have 
cared to provoke an irascible Galilean, by an accusation which he 
might resent in the characteristic manner of his count^men ; till 
another of the servants of the high priest, a relation of Malchus, 
whose ear Peter had cut off, after looking well at him, and being 
provoked by the singular boldness of his thrusting himself into 
the home of the very man whom he had so shockingly muti- 
lated and nearly murdered, determined to bring the offender to 
punishment; and speaking to his fellow-servants, he indignantly 
and confidently affirmed — " This fellow was also with him, for he 
is a Galilean." And turning to Peter, whom he had seen in Geth- 
semane, when engaged at the time of the capture of Jesus, he impe- 
riously asked him — " Did I not see thee in the garden with him?" 
And others, joining in the charge, said decidedly to him, " Surely 
thou art one of them also : for thy very speech, thy accent, unques- 
tionably shows thee to be a Galilean." Peter began at last to see 
that his situation was growing quite desperate ; and finding that 



peter's discipleship. 127 

his distress about his Lord had brought him within a chance of 
the same fate, determined to extricate himself by as unscrupulously 
using his tongue in his own defense as he had before used his 
sword for his Master. Besides, he had already told two flat lies 
within about three hours, and it was not for a Galilean in such a 
pass to hesitate about one more, even though seconded by a perjury. 
For he then began to curse and to swear, saying — "Man, I know not 
what thou sayest. I know not the man of whom ye speak." And 
immediately, while he was yet speaking, the cock crew the second 
time. At that moment, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, 
and at the same sound the conscience-stricken disciple turning to- 
wards his Lord, met that glance. And what a look ! He who 
cannot imagine it for himself, cannot conceive it from the ideal pic- 
ture of another ; but its effect was sufficiently dramatic to impress 
the least picturesque imagination. As the Lord turned and looked 
upon him, Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had 
said to him — " Before the cock shall crow twice this night, thou 
shalt deny me thrice." And thinking thereon, he went out, 
and wept bitterly. Tears of rebuked conceit — of self-humbled 
pride, over fallen glory and sullied honor — flowed down his 
manly cheeks. Where was now the fiery spirit once in word so 
ready to brave death, with all the low malice of base foes, for the 
sake of Jesus ? Where was that unshaken steadiness, that daunt- 
less energy that once won for him, from the lips of his Master, 
when first his searching eye fell on him, the name of the rock, — 
that name by which again he had been consecrated as the mighty 
foundation-RocK of the church of God ? Was this the chief of 
the apostles ? — the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven ? 
— binding and loosing on earth what should.be bound or loosed 
in heaven ? Where were the brave, high hopes of earthly glory 
to be won under the warlike banners of his kingly Master ? Where 
was that Master and Lord ? The hands of the rude were now laid 
on him, in insult and abuse, — his glories broken and faded, — his 
power vain for his own rescue from sufferings vastly greater than 
those so often relieved by him in others, — his followers dispirited 
and scattered, — disowning and casting out as evil the name they 
had so long adored. The haughty lords of Judaism were now 
exulting in their cruel victory, re-established in their dignity, and 
strengthened in their tyranny by this long-wished triumph over 
their foe. He wept for bright hopes dimmed, — for crushed ambi- 
tion ; — but more than all, for broken faith,— for trampled truth, — 
18 



128 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

and for the three-fold and perjured denial of his betrayed and for- 
saken Lord. Well might he weep — 

" There's bliss in tears, 

When he Avho sheds them inly feels 
Some lingering stain of early years 

Effaced by every drop that steals. 
The fruitless showers of worldly wo 

Fall dark to earth and never rise ; 
"While tears that from repentance now, 

In bright exhalement reach the skies." 

The long nights in contrast with the heat of the day. — It should be remembered, that 
according to a just calculation, these events happened in the month of March, when 
the air of Palestine is uncomfortably cold. Conder, in his valuable topographical 
compilation, says, " during the months of May, June, July, and August, the sky is 
for the most part cloudless; but during the night, the earth is moistened with a co- 
pious dew. Sultry days are not unfrequently succeeded by intensely cold nights. To 
these sudden vicissitudes, references are made in the Old Testament. Gen. xxxi. 
40 : Ps. cxxi. 6." (Mod. Trav. Palestine, p. 14.) 

The cold season, (-np Qor,) immediately following the true winter, (b-m-i Bhorcph,) 
took in the latter part of the Hebrew month Shebeth, the whole of Adar, and the 
former half of Nisan ; that is, in modern divisions of time, — from the beginning of 
February to the beginning of April, according to the Calendarium Palestinae in the 
Critica Biblica, Vol. III.: but according to Jahn. (Arch. Bib. § 21,) from the middle 
of February to the middle of April, the two estimates varying with the different 
views about the dates of the ancient Hebrew months. 

Galilean, ready to lie as to fight. — This may strike some, as rather too harsh a 
sentence to pass upon the general character of a whole people, but I believe I am 
borne out in this seeming abuse, by the steady testimony of most authorities to which 
I can readily refer. Josephus, whom I have already quoted in witness of their pug- 
nacity, (on page 118,) seems to have been so well pleased with this trait, and also 
with their " industry and activity," which he so highly commends in them, as well 
as the richness of the natural resources of the country ; all which characteristics, both 
of the people and the region, he made so highly available in their defense during the 
war with the Romans, that he does not think it worth while to criticise their morals, 
to which, indeed, the season of a bloody war gives a sort of license, that made such 
defects less prominent, being apparently rather characteristic of the times than the 
people. But there is great abundance of condemnatory testimony, which shows that 
the Galileans bore as bad a character among their neighbors, as my severest remark 
could imply. Numerous passages in the Gospels and Acts show this so plainly as to 
convey this general impression against them verv decidedly. Kuinoel (on Matt. ii. 
23) speaks strongly of their proverbially low moral character. " All the Galileans 
were so despised by the dwellers of Jerusalem and Judea, that when they wished to 
characterize a man as a low and outcast wretch, they called him a Galilean." On 
other passages, also, (as on John vii. 52, and Matt. iv. 17,) he repeats this intellectual 
and moral condemnation in similar terms. Beza and Grotius, also, in commenting 
on these passages, speak of Galilee as " contempta regio." Rosenmiiller, also, (on 
John vii. 52,) says, " Nullus, aiunt, Galilaeus unquam a Deo donatus est spiritu'pro- 
phetico : gens est Deo despectaP That is, " What they mean is — that no Galilean was 
ever indued with a spirit of prophecy : they are a people despised by God," (as refer- 
red to in John vii. 49.) I might quote "at great length from many commentators to 
the same effect ; but these will serve as a specimen. It should be remarked, however, 
that the Galileans, though they might be worse than most Jews in their general char- 
acter, were not very peculiar in their neglect of truth; for from the time of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the present moment, the Asiatic races, generally, have been 
infamous for falsehood, and there are many modern travelers who are ready to tes- 
tify that almost any Oriental, when asked an indifferent question, will tell a lie at a 
venture, unless he sees some special personal advantage likely to result to him from 
telling the truth. 

Yet in minute legal observances, the Galileans were, for the most part, much more 
rigid in interpreting and following the law of Moses, than the inhabitants of Judea, 
as is abundantly shown by Lightfoot in his numerous Talmudic quotations, {Cent. 



Peter's discipleship. 129 

Ckor. cap. 86,) where the comparison is, on many accounts, highly favorable to such 
of the Galileans as pretended to observe and follow the Jewish law at all. 

Thy accent shows thee. — Lightfoot is very rich in happy illustrations of this pas- 
sage, (Cent. Chor. cap. 87.) He has drawn very largely here from the Talmudic 
writers, who are quite amusing in the instances which they give of the dialectic dif- 
ferences between the Galileans and the Judeans. Several of the puns which they 
give, would not be accounted dull even in modern times, and, indeed, the Galilean 
brogue seems to have been as well marked, and to have given occasion for nearly as 
much wit as that of Ireland. The Galileans, thus marked by dialect as well as by 
manners, held about the same place in the estimation of the pure Judean race, as the 
modern Irish do among those of Saxon-English tongue and blood; and we cannot 
better conceive of the scorn excited in the refined Jews by the idea of a Galilean 
prophet with his simple disciples, than by imagining the sort of impression that 
would be made, by an Irish prophet attempting the foundation of a new sect in Lon- 
don or Boston, with a dozen rough and uneducated workmen for his preachers and 
main supporters. 

The bright light of the fire shining on his face, tyc. — This incident is taken from 
Luke xxii. 56, where the expression in the common version is, " a certain maid saw 
him as he sat by the fire." But in the original Greek this last word is <pti$, (phos,) 
which means " light," and not " fire ;" and it is translated here in this peculiar man- 
ner, because it evidently refers to the light of the fire, from its connexion with the 
preceding verse, where it is said that " Peter sat down among them ' before' the fire 
which they had kindled;" the word fire in this passage being in the Greek nty (pur,) 
which is never translated otherwise. But the unusual translation of the word ^wj, 
by " fire" in the other verse, though it gives a just idea of Peter's position, makes a 
common reader lose sight of the prominent reason of his detection, which was, that 
the " light of the fire" shone on his face. 

In speaking of Peter's fall and its attendant circumstances, Lampe (in ev. John 
xviii. 17) seems to be most especially scandalized by the means through which Peter's 
ruin was effected. " Sed ab ancilla Cepham vinci, dedecus ejus auget. Quanta in- 
constantia ! Qui in armatos ordines paulo ante irruperat nunc ad vocem levis mu- 
lierculae tremit. Si Adamo probrosum, quod a femina conjuge seductus erat, non 
minus Petro, quod ab ancilla." That is, " But that Cephas should have been over- 
come by a girl, increases his disgrace. How great the change ! He who, but a little 
before, had charged an armed host, now trembled at the voice of a silly woman. If 
it was a shame to Adam, that he had been seduced by his wife, it was no less so to 
Peter, that he was by a girl." 

The cock crew. — By this circumstance, the time of the denial in all its parts is well 
ascertained. The first cock-crowing after the first denial marked the hour of mid- 
night, and the second cock-crowing announced the first dawn of day. As Lampe 
says — " Altera haec erat d\eKTpo<pc>via, praenuncia lucis, non tantum in terra, sed et in 
corde Petri, tenebris spississimis obsepto, mox iterum oriturae." u This was the se- 
cond cock-crowing, the herald of light, soon to rise again, not only on earth, but also 
in the heart of Peter, now overspread with the thickest darkness." 

And thinking thereon, he wept. — This expression is taken from Mark xiv. 72, and 
accords with our common translation, though very different from many others that 
have been proposed. The word thus variously rendered, is in the original Greek, 
hmpaXuv, (epibalon,) and bears a great variety of definitions which can be determined 
only by its connexions, in the passages where it occurs. Campbell says, " there are 
not many words in scripture which have undergone more interpretations than this 
term ;" and truly the array of totally diverse renderings, each ably supported by many 
of the most learned Biblical scholars that ever lived, is quite appalling to the inves- 
tigator. (1.) Those who support the common English translation are Kypke, Wet- 
stein, Campbell, and Bloomfield, and others quoted by the latter. — (2.) Another trans- 
lation which has been ably defended, is " he began to weep." This is the expression 
in the common German translation, (Martin Luther's,) " er hob an zu weinen." It 
is also the version of the Vulgate, (" Coepit flere,") the Syriac, Gothic, Persian, and 
Armenian translations, as Kuinoel and Heinsius observe, who also maintain this 
rendering. — (3.) Another is " He proceeded to weep," (" Addens flevit,") which is that 
of Grotius, Le Clerc, Simon, Petavius, and others. — (4.) Another is, " covering his 
head, he wept." This seems to have begun with Theophylact, who has been followed 
by a great number, among whom Salmasius, Wolf, Suicer, and Macknight, and 
Krebs, are the most prominent. — (5.) Another is " rushing out, he wept." This is 
maintained by Beza, Rosenmuller, Schleusner, Bretschneider, and Wahl.— (6.) An- 



130 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

other is " Having looked at him" (Jesus,) " he wept." This is the version of Ham- 
mond and Palairet. — "Who shall decide when" so many "doctors disagree V I 
should feel safest in leaving the reader, as Parkhurst does, to " consider and judge" 
for himself; but in defense of my own rendering, I would simply observe, that the 
common English version is that which is most in accordance with the rules of gram- 
mar, and is best supported by classic usage, while the second and third are justly ob- 
jected to by Bloonifield and Campbell as ungrammatical and unsupported by truly 
parallel passages, notwithstanding the array of classical quotations by Bp. Blomfield 
and others ; and the fourth and fifth equally deserve rejection for the very tame and 
cold expression which they make of it ; the fourth also being ungrammatical like the 
second and third. The sixth definition also may be rejected on grammatical grounds, 
as well as for lack of authorities and classic usage to support such an elliptical trans- 
lation. — For long and numerous discussions of all" these points, see any or every one 
of the writers whose names I have cited in this note. 



From that moment we hear no more of the humbled apostle, 
till after the fatal consummation of his Redeemer's sufferings. 
Yet he must have been a beholder of that awful scene. When 
the multitude of men and women followed the cross-bearing Re- 
deemer down the vale of Calvary, mourning with tears and groans, 
Peter could not have sought to indulge in solitary grief. And 
since the son of Zebedee stood by the cross during the whole 
agony of Jesus, (and the other apostles probably had no more cause 
of fear than John,) Peter also might have stood near, among the 
crowd, without any danger of being further molested by those 
whom he had offended ; for they now looked on their triumph as 
too complete to need any minor acts of vengeance, to consummate 
it over the fragments of the broken Nazarene sect. Still, it was 
in silent sorrow and horror that he gazed on this sight of wo ; 
and the deep despair which now overwhelmed his bright dreams 
of glory was no longer uttered in the violent expressions to which 
his loquacious genius prompted him. He now had time and rea- 
son enough to apprehend the painfully literal meaning of the oft- 
repeated predictions of Christ about these sad events, — predictions 
which were once so wildly unheeded or perversely misconstrued, 
as best suited the ambitious disciples' hopes of a power, which was 
to be set up over all the civil, religious, and military tyrants of 
Palestine, and of which they were to be the chief partakers. 
These hopes all went out with the last breath of their crucified 
Lord, and when they turned away from that scene of hopeless 
wo, after taking a last look of the face that had so long been the 
source of light and truth to them, now fixed and ghastly in the 
last struggle of a horrible death, they must have felt that the de- 
lusive dream of years was now broken, and that they were but 
forlorn and desperate outcasts in the land which their proud 



peter's discipleship. 131 

thoughts once aspired to rule. What despairing anguish must 
have been theirs, as, climbing the hill-side with sad and slow steps, 
they looked back from its top down upon the cross, that might 
still be seen in the dark valley, though dim with the shades of 
falling night ! Their Lord, their teacher, their guide, their friend, 
— hung there between the heaven and the earth, among thieves, the 
victim of triumphant tyranny \ and they, owing their safety only to 
the contemptuous forbearance of his murderers, must now, stran- 
gers in a strange land, seek a home among those who scorned 
them. 

The vale of Calvary. — This expression will no doubt excite vast surprise in the 
minds of many readers, who have all their lives heard and talked of Mount Calvary, 
without once taking the pains to find out whether there ever was any such place. 
Such persons will, no doubt, find their amazement still farther increased, on learn- 
ing that no Mount Calvary is mentioned in any part of the Bible, nor in any ancient 
author. 

The whole account given of this name in the Bible, is in Luke xxiii. 33, where in 
the common translation it is said that Christ was crucified in " the place called Cal- 
vary." In the parallel passages in the other gospels, the Hebrew name only is given, 
Golgotha, which means simply " a skull." (Matt, xxvii. 33 : Mark xv. 22 : John 
xix. 17.) This particular place does not seem to be named and designated in any 
part of the Old Testament ; but a very clear idea of its general situation can be ob- 
tained, from the consideration of the fact, that there was a place beyond the walls of 
Jerusalem, where all the dead were buried, and whither all the unclean carcasses of 
animals were carried and left to molder. This was that part of the valley of the 
Kedron which was called the valley of Tophet, or the vale of the son of Hinnom, 
This is often alluded to as the place of dead bodies. (Jer. vii. 32, &c.) Besides, all 
reason and analogy utterly forbid the supposition, that dead carcasses would be piled 
up on a " mount" or hill, to rot and send their effluvia all over the city in every fa- 
vorable wind ; while on the other hand, a deep valley like that of Hinnom would be 
a most proper place for carrying such offensive matters. Josephus, in his description 
of the temple, very particularly notices the fact, that all the blood and filth which 
flowed from the numerous sacrifices, was conveyed by a subterraneous channel or 
drain to this very valley. A moment's thought will satisfy any one, that a valley is 
the most proper place for such a receptacle of dead animal matter; and nobody could 
ever have thought of removing carcasses from a city to a hill " nigh to the city ;" for 
thus John (xix. 20) describes the locality of Golgotha, — making it apparent that, if 
the spot was an elevation, the carrion on it must have been constantly and most of- 
fensively conspicuous to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, whose religion, as well as 
natural decency, required them to avoid all pollution from the dead. 

The real locality of Golgotha, Calvary, or the place of crucifixion, I should, there- 
fore be disposed to fix in " the valley of the son of Hinnom," otherwise called " the 
valley of Tophet;" and probably at that part of it where it opened into the valley of 
Jehoshaphat; for John says that the garden, in which was the tomb where Joseph of 
Arimathea and Nicodemus laid the body of Jesus, " was in the place where he was 
crucified," and that " the sepulchre was nigh at hand." Now it cannot be supposed 
that any religious and respectable Jew, like Joseph, would have a new tomb and a 
garden prepared for himself, with so much pains and expense, in the midst of the 
filth, bones, and abominations that filled the depths of the valley of Hinnom. The 
valley of Jehoshaphat was the proper place of tombs, and was used as such both by 
ancient and modern Jews. But supposing the place of crucifixion to have been in 
the opening of the valley of Hinnom into that of Jehoshaphat, and supposing also that 
Joseph's new tomb was in that part of the valley of Jehoshaphat immediately adjacent, 
both might properly be said to be in the same place, and were probably in sight of 
each other, though in parts of the great vale nominally different. (See note on 
page 111.) 

As to all the baseless modern inventions of Mount Calvary, retailed by the idol- 



132 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

atrous Christians of Jerusalem to European travelers, and by many of these travelers 
to their readers, — not one of them deserves the slightest notice in this topographical 
criticism. It is enough to say, that what is now shown in Jerusalem as Mount Cal- 
vary, is known to be a pile of masonry, — a mere mass of stone and mortar from top 
to bottom — and that the notion of the crucifixion having occurred in that part of Je- 
rusalem is just as modern a fable as that of the hole in which the cross stood, and 
was invented at the same time, for the same purpose, namely, to impose on pilgrims; 
— nobody having then the means of settling the true localities. (See Conder, for a full 
refutation of these fables, in Modern Traveler, vol. I. p. 128.) 

It should be noticed, that the name " Calvary" does not occur in the original Greek 
of the Testament at all, but is a mere Latin translation of the Greek word Kpaviov, 
{Kranion) " a skull .-" — Latin, Calvaria, the same meaning. This word was that very 
properly given by Jerome, in his Latin (or Vulgate) translation of the New Testament ; 
but our English translators, finding that by long use of this as the standard version, 
the word had so generally acquired the force of a proper name, adopted it as such, 
instead of translating the original Greek and Hebrew words into the English word 
" skull," as they should have done, if they did not choose to adopt Kranion, or Golgo- 
tha, as proper names. 

THE RESURRECTION. 

With such feelings they returned to Jerusalem, where the 
eleven, who were all Galileans, found places of abode with those 
of Christ's followers who were dwellers in the city. Here they 
passed the Sabbath heavily and sorrowfully, no doubt; and their 
thoughts must now have reverted to their former business, to 
which it now became each one of them to return, since he who 
had called them from their employments could no more send 
them forth on his errands of love. On the day after the Sabbath, 
while such thoughts and feelings must still have distressed them, 
almost as soon as they had risen, some of them received a sudden 
and surprising call from several of the alarmed women, who hav- 
ing faithfully ministered to all the necessities of Jesus during his 
life, had been preparing to do the last sad offices to his dead body. 
The strange story brought by these was, that having gone early 
in the morning to the sepulchre, in the vale of crucifixion, with 
this great object, they had been horror-struck to find the place in 
which the body had been deposited on Sabbath eve, now empty, 
notwithstanding the double security of the enormous rock which 
had closed the mouth of the cave, and the stout guard of Roman 
soldiers who were posted there by request of the Jews, to pre- 
vent expected imposition. On hearing this strange story, Peter 
and John, followed by Mary of Magdala, started at once for the 
sepulchre. As they made all possible haste, the youth of John 
enabled him to reach the place before his older companion ; but 
Peter arrived very soon after him, and, outdoing his companion 
now in prompt and diligent examination, as he had before been 
outdone in bodily speed, he immediately made a much more tho- 
rough search of the spot, than John in his hurry and alarm had 



peter's discipleship. 133 

thought of. He had contented himself with looking down into 
the sepulchre, and having distinctly seen the linen clothes lying 
empty and alone 3 he went not in. But when Simon Peter came 
following him, he went into the sepulchre and saw the linen 
clothes lie ; and the napkin that was about his head not lying 
with the other clothes, but folded up carefully in a place by itself. 
Having thus made a thorough search, as this shows, into every 
nook and corner, he satisfied himself perfectly that the body had 
in some way or other been actually removed, and on his report- 
ing this to his companion, he also came down into the cave, and 
made a similar examination with the same result. The only 
conclusion to which these appearances brought their minds, was 
that some person, probably with the design of further insult and 
injury, had thus rifled the tomb, and dragged the naked body from 
its funeral vestments. For, as yet, they understood not the scrip- 
ture, nor the words of Christ himself, that he must rise from the 
dead. The two disciples, therefore, overwhelmed with new dis- 
tress, went away again to their own temporary home, to consult with 
the rest of the disciples, leaving Mary behind them, lingering in 
tears about the tomb. 

The Sepulchre in the Vale of Crucifixion. — This is the fair expression of the mean- 
ing of John, (xix. 41.) " Now in the place where he was crucified there was a gar- 
den, and in the garden a sepulchre," &c. The place which Joseph of Arimathea had 
chosen for a costly sepulchre, was no doubt near that part of the valley of Jehoshaphat, 
where, at this day, are to be seen the famous " tombs of the kings," among which some 
have pretended to find those of David and Solomon. These are large apartments 
cut out of the solid rock, with niches in their sides, in which the dead were to be de- 
posited. They are remarkable for the structure of the door, which is a single massy 
slab of stone, made to turn on a corresponding portion of the rock in which the whole 
is excavated. This seems to agree with the account of the manner in which the sep- 
ulchre of Jesus was closed by " a great stone," requiring the strength of a man to roll 
or turn it back. (Matt, xxvii. 60, xxviii. 2. Mark xv. 46, xvi. 3, 4, &c.) For a 
fuller account of these " sepulchres of the kings," see Conder's Modern Traveler, 
Palestine, pp. 121—128.) 

Some time after their return, but before they had been able to 
explain these strange appearances, Mary followed them home, 
and as soon as she found them, added to their amazement im- 
mensely, by a surprising story of her actually having seen Jesus 
himself, alive, in bodily form, who had conversed with her, and 
had distinctly charged her to tell his disciples, and Peter espe- 
cially, that he would go before them into Galilee, where he would 
meet them. When she came and told them this, they were 
mourning and weeping. But when they had heard that he was 
alive, though the story was confirmed with such a minute detail 

of attendent circumstances, and though assured by her that she 
^9 



134 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

had personally seen him, they yet believed not. So dark were their 
minds about even the possibility of his resurrection, that after- 
wards, when two of their own number, who had gone about seven 
miles into the country, to Emmaus, returned in great haste to Je- 
rusalem, and told the disciples that they too had seen Jesus, and 
had a long talk with him, they would not believe even this addi- 
tional proof ; but supposed that they, in their credulous expecta- 
tion, had suffered themselves to be imposed on by some one re- 
sembling Jesus in person, who chose to amuse himself by making 
them believe so palpable a falsehood. Yet some of them, even 
then, suffering their longing hopes to get the better of their prudent 
skepticism, were beginning to express their conviction of the fact, 
saying — " The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared unto Si- 
mon." Of this last-mentioned appearance, no farther particulars are 
anywhere given, though it is barely mentioned by Paul ; and it is 
impossible to give any certain account of the circumstances. While 
assembled at their evening meal, and thus discussing the various 
strange stories brought to their ears in such quick succession, after 
they had closed the doors for security against interruption from the 
Jews, all at once, without any previous notice, Jesus himself ap- 
peared standing in the midst, and said — " Peace be unto you." 
They, seeing the mysterious object of their conversation, so strange- 
ly and suddenly present among them, while they were just dis- 
cussing the possibility of his existence, were much frightened, and 
in the alarm of the moment supposed that they were beholding a 
disembodied spirit. But he soon calmed their terrors, and changed 
their fear into firm and joyful assurance, that he was indeed the 
same whom they had so long known ; and to prove that the body 
now before them was the same which they had two days before 
seen fastened expiring to the cross, he showed them his hands, his 
feet, and his side, with the very marks which the nails and spear had 
made in them. And while yet they could not soberly believe for joy, 
and stood wondering, he, to show them that his body still performed 
the functions of life, and required the same support as theirs, asked 
them for a share of the food on the table ; and taking some from 
their hands, he ate it before them. He then upbraided them with 
their unbelief and stupidity in not believing those who had seen 
him after he was risen from the dead. He recalled to their minds 
his former repeated warnings of these very events, literally as they 
had been brought to pass. He said to them — " These are the words 
which I spake to you while I was yet with you. that all things 



peter's discipleship. 135 

must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the 
prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me." Then opened he 
their understandings, that they might understand the scriptures. 
Then it was, that at last burst upon them the light so long shut 
out ; they knew their own past blindness, and they saw in the clear 
distinctness of reality, all his repeated predictions of his humiliation, 
suffering, death, resurrection, and of their cowardice and desertion, 
brought before them in one glance, and made perfectly consistent 
with each other, and with the result. So that, amid the rejoicings 
of new hope born from utter despair, at the same time expired their 
vain and idle notion of earthly glory and power under his reign. 
Their Master had passed through all his anguish and disgrace, and 
come back to them from the grave ; yet, though thus vindicating 
his boundless power, he did not pretend to use the least portion of 
it in avenging on his foes all the cruelties which he had suffered 
from their hands. They could not hope, then, for a better fate, 
surely, than his ; they were to expect only similar labors, rewarded 
with similar sufferings and death. 
Mentioned by Paul. — In his account of the resurrection, in 1 Cor. xv. 5. 

THE MEETING ON THE LAKE. 

After this meeting with him, they saw him again repeatedly ; 
but no incident, relating particularly to the subject of this memoir, 
occurred on either of these occasions, except at the scene on lake 
Tiberias, so fully and graphically given by John, in the last chap- 
ter of his gospel. It seems that at that time, the disciples had, in 
accordance with the earliest command of Jesus after his resurrec- 
tion, gone into Galilee to meet him there. The particular spot 
where this incident took place was probably near Capernaum and 
Bethsaida, among their old familiar haunts. Peter at this time re- 
siding at his home in Capernaum, it would seem, very naturally, 
while waiting for the visit which Christ had promised them, sought 
to pass the time as pleasantly as possible in his old business, from 
which he had once been called to draw men into the grasp of the 
gospel. With him, at this time, were Thomas, or Didymus, and 
Nathanael, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples, 
whether of the eleven or not, is not known. On his telling them 
that he was going out a fishing, they, allured also by old habits 
and a desire to amuse themselves in a useful way, declared that 
they also would go with him. They went forth accordingly, and 
taking the fishing-boat, pushed off in the evening as usual, — the 



136 * LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

night being altogether the best time for catching the fish, because 
the lake not then being constantly disturbed by passing vessels, 
the fish are less disposed to keep themselves in the depths of the 
waters, but feeling bolder in the stillness, rise to the surface within 
reach of the watchful fisherman. But on this occasion, from 
something peculiar in the state of the air or water, the fish did 
not come within the range of the net ; and that night they caught 
nothing. Having given up the fruitless effort, they were towards 
morning heavily working in towards the shore, and were about a 
hundred yards from it, when they noticed some person who stood 
on the land ; but in the gray light of morning his person could not 
be distinguished. This man called to them in a friendly voice, as 
soon as they came within hailing distance, crying out in a free and 
familiar way, " Friends ! have you any thing to eat V To which 
they answered, " No." The unknown friend then called to them 
in a confident tone, telling them to cast the net on the right side 
of the ship, and they should find plenty. They cast accordingly, 
and on closing and drawing the net, were not able to pull it in, 
for the weight of the fishes taken in it. In a moment flashed on 
the ready mind of John, the remembrance of the former similar 
prodigy wrought at the word of Jesus near the same spot ; and 
he immediately recognized in the benevolent stranger, his Lord. 
Turning to Simon, therefore, who had been too busy tugging at 
the net to think of the meaning of the miracle, he said to him, 
" It is the Lord." Conviction burst on him with equal certainty 
as on his companion, and giving way to his natural headlong 
promptitude in action, he leaped at once into the water, after gird- 
ing his great-coat around him ; and by partly swimming and partly 
wading through the shallows, he soon reached the shore, where 
his loved and long-expected Master was. At the same time, with 
as little delay as possible, the rest of them, leaving their large 
vessel, probably on account of the shallows along that part of the 
coast, came ashore in a little skiff, dragging the full net behind 
them. In this they showed their considerate prudence ; for had 
they all in the first transport of impatience followed Peter, and left 
boat and net together at that critical moment, the net would have 
loosened and the fishes have escaped, thus making the kind mira- 
cle of no effect by their carelessness. As soon as they were come 
to land, they saw Jesus placed composedly by a fire of coals which 
he had made, and on which he had deigned to cook for their 
common entertainment, some fish previously caught, dished with 



137 

some bread. Jesus without ceremony ordered them to come and 
bring some of the fish they had just caught. Simon Peter, now 
mindful of his late heedless desertion of his comrades in the midst 
of their worst labor, stepped forward zealously, and dragged the 
heavy net out of the water ; and though on opening it they found 
one hundred and fifty-three large fishes in it, notwithstanding the 
weight, the net was not broken. When they had obeyed his com- 
mand, and supplied the place of the fish already cooked on the 
fire, by fresh ones from the net, Jesus in a kind and hearty tone 
invited them to come and breakfast with him on what he had pre- 
pared. The disciples, notwithstanding the readiness with which 
they had come ashore to their Master, still seem to have felt some- 
what shy ; not, however, because they had any solid doubt as to 
his really being the person they had supposed him, for no man 
durst say to him — " who art thou V — knowing him to be the Lord. 
Perhaps it was not yet full daylight, which may account for their 
shyness and want of readiness in accepting his invitation. But 
Jesus, in order fully to assure them, comes and takes bread, and 
puts it into their hands, with a share of fish likewise to each. 
They now took hold heartily, and without scruple sat down 
around the fire to breakfast with him. When they had done break- 
fast, as men who have spent the night in watching are best disposed 
to be social after eating, he addressed himself to Peter in words of 
reproof, warning, and commission. He first inquired of him — 
" Simon, son of Jonah ! lovest thou me more than these ?" To this 
Peter readily replied — " Yea, Lord ! thou knowest that I love thee." 
Jesus then said to him — "J^eed my lambs." Peter had learned 
some humility by his late fall from truth and courage. Before, he 
had boldly professed a regard for Christ, altogether surpassing in 
extent and permanency the affection which the other disciples felt 
for him, and had, in the fullness of his self-sufficiency, declared 
that though all the rest should forsake him, yet would he abide by 
him, and follow him even to prison and to death. But now that 
high self-confidence had received a sad fall, and the remembrance 
of his late disgraceful conduct was too fresh in his mind to allow 
him any more to assume that tone of presumption. He therefore 
modestly confined his expression of attachment to the simple and 
humble reference to the all-knowing heart of his divine Master, to 
which he solemnly and affectingly appealed as his faithful witness 
in this assertion of new and entire devotion to him, whom he had 
once so weakly denied and deserted. No more high-toned boast- 



138 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ings — no more arrogant assertion of superior pretensions to fidelity 
and firmness ; but a humble, submissive, beseeching utterance of 
devoted love, that sought no comparisons to enhance its merit, but 
in lowly confidence appealed to the searcher of hearts as the un- 
deceivable testifier of his honesty and truth. Nor was his deep 
and renewed affection, thus expressed, disregarded ; but Jesus ac- 
cepting his purified self-sacrifice, at once in the same words both 
offered him the consoling pledge of his restoration to grace, and 
again charged him with the high commission, which, while it 
proved his Lord's confidence, gave him the means of showing to 
all mankind the sincerity and permanency of his change of heart. 
From the words of the Messiah's reply, he learned that the solid 
proof of his deserved restoration should be seen in his devotion to 
the work which that Messiah had begun ; that by guiding, guard- 
ing, and feeding the young and tender of Christ's flock, when left 
again without their Master, he might set forth his new love. Al- 
ready had Jesus, before that sad trial of their souls, in his parting, 
warning words to his near and dear ones, told them, "If ye keep 
my commandments ye shall abide in my love. Ye are my friends 
if ye do whatsoever I command you. By this shall all men know 
that ye are my disciples, — if ye have love one to another." And 
here, in practical comment on that former precept, did he give his 
restored apostle this test of unchanged love. So harmoniously 
and beautifully does the sacred record make precept answer and 
accord with precept. In the minute detail of mere common inci- 
dent, we may wander and stagger bewildered among insignificant 
differences and difficulties ; but the rule of action, the guide of 
life, leads steadily and clearly through every maze, uneffaced by 
the changes of order, time, and place. 

" Friends. 1 ' — The Greek word here faeuSia, paidia) has a neuter termination, and is 
applicable to persons of both sexes, like the English word " children" which is here 
given in the common version. But Jerome's Latin translation (the Vulgate) gives 
" pueri," "boys," and he is right! The expression which I have used seems more 
in accordance with the affectionate diminutive, (jaiSia,) than the one given in the com- 
mon English version, or the harsher term " Boys" 

Great-coat. — This I consider as giving a better idea of the garment called in the 
Greek ImvSvTw, (ependuten,) which is derived from a verb which means " putting on 
over another garment," and is of course described with more justice to the original 
by the English " great-coat," or "over-coat," than by "fisher's coat," as in the com- 
mon translation. I suppose it was a rough outer dress, designed as a protection 
against rain and spray, and which he put on in such a way that he might wade in it 
without the inconvenience of its hanging about his legs. It must have been a sort 
of " over-all" that he had pulled off while at work, and put on to wade in the water ; 
for the verb Siafavwiu (diazonnumi) has also that meaning as well as " gird about ;" 
and his object in thus " putting on his over-alls" may have been to keep himself dry, 
by covering both his legs and body from the water : for it may have come down over 
the legs like a sort of outside trowsers, and being tied tight, would make a very 



139 

comfortable protection against cold water. (See Poole and Kuinoel on this passage, 
John xxi. 7.) 

Luther, in his German translation, has very queerly expressed this word, " guer- 
tete er das hemde um sich," " he girt his shirt about him;" being led into this error, 
probably, by taking the following sentence in too strong a sense, concluding that he 
was perfectly naked. But I have already alluded (note on page 117) to the peculiar 
force of this word in the Bible, nor can it mean any thing but that he was without 
his outer garments ; and it implies no more indecent exposure than in the case of 
Christ, when laying aside his garments to wash his disciples' feet. Besides, I have 
shown that the etymology of iire^vrris (ependutes) will not allow any meaning to it, 
but that of an " outer garment" worn over other clothes. De Wette has, in his cor- 
rect German translation of the Bible, noticed and amended this expression. Instead 
of " hemde," he very properly gives " oberkleid" — " outer-garment" " over-coat." 
The Dutch is also accurate — " opperkleed." 

A little skiff. — The Greek word here is n\oidpioi>, (jploiarion,) and means " a small 
boat," and is the diminution of irXotav, (ploion,) the word used in the third verse of 
the same chapter, as the name of the larger vessel in which they sailed, and which 
drew too much water to come close to the shore in this part of the lake, where it was 
probably shallow, so as to make it necessary for them to haul the net ashore with this 
little skiff, which seems to have been a sort of drag-boat to the larger vessel, kept for 
landing in such places. 

" Come and breakfast." — This is certainly a vast improvement on the common 
English version, which here gives the word " dine." For it must strike an ordinary 
reader as a very early dinner at that time of the morning; (John xix. 4;) and what 
settles the question is, that the Greek word here is dpiarTfjcaTe, (aristesate,) which pri- 
marily and almost always was applied only to the eating of the earliest meal, or 
breakfast, being derived from aptorov, " breakfast," the first meal in the day, accord- 
ing to Homer and Xenophon. 

Are best disposed to be sociable after eating. This is a remark of the learned and 
pious Hugo Grotius. (Comm. in Joh. xxi. 15.) " ' Cum prandissent' — Gluod tempus 
est colloquendi." (See also Poole, in loc.~) 

Many other unrecorded words of wisdom and love must have 
been spoken at this time, in the course of which Jesus again took 
occasion to put this meaning and moving question, — " Simon, son 
of Jonah, lovest thou me ?" The first answer of Peter had suffi- 
ciently shown, that he had no more of that disposition to claim a 
merit superior to his fellow disciples ; and Jesus did not again 
urge upon him a comparison with them, but merely renewed the 
inquiry in a simple, absolute form. Again Peter earnestly ex- 
pressed his love, with the same appeal to Christ's own knowledge 
of his heart for the testimony of his loyalty, — " Yea, Lord, thou 
knowest that I love thee." He saith to him — " Feed my sheep." 
If thou lovest me, show that love, by supplying the place of my 
earthly care, to those whom I love. Love and feed those for 
whom I have bled and died. — What could be more simple and 
clear than this question ? What more earnest and honest than the 
answer ? What more abiding than the impression made by this 
charge ? Yet did not the far-seeing Savior desist from trying his 
disciple with these questions. Once more was it solemnly re- 
peated — " Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me?" Peter was grieved 
that he asked him the third time — " lovest thou me ?" He saw 



140 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

at last the reproachful meaning of the inquiry. Three times had 
this same apostle, by his false-hearted denial, renounced all love 
and interest in his Master ; and three times did that injured and 
forgiving Master call upon him to pledge again his forfeited faith 
and affection. He thus pointed out the past weakness of Peter, 
and showed the means of maintaining and insuring future fidel- 
ity. Peter again still more movingly avowed his honest attach- 
ment, half-remonstrating at this repetition of the question by one 
who must already know the heart of the answerer too fully for 
words to inform him anew : — " Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou 
knowest that I love thee." Jesus said to him — " Feed my sheep." 
He now passed on to a new prediction of his future fortunes, in 
the service to which he had in these words devoted him ; making 
known to him the earthly reward which his services would at last 
receive. " I solemnly say to thee, when thou wast young, thou 
girdedst thyself and walkedst whither thou wouldest ; but when 
thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another 
shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." This 
he said, to signify to him by what sort of death he should glorify 
God. That is, he in these words plainly foretold to him that he 
should, through all his toils and dangers in his Master's service, 
survive to old age ; and he also alludes to the loss of free 
agency in his own movements ; but the circumstances are so 
darkly alluded to, that the particular mode of his death could never 
be made to appear clearly from the prediction. The particular 
meaning of the expressions of this prophecy, can of course be 
best shown in connexion with the circumstances of his death, as 
far as they are known ; and to that part of his history the expla- 
nations are deferred. 

After this solemn prediction, he said to him — " Follow me." This 
command seems not to have any connexion, as some have sup- 
posed, with the preceding words of Jesus referring to his future 
destiny ; but to be a mere direction to follow him on his return 
from the lake, either back to Capernaum, or to the mountain ap- 
pointed for his meeting with the great body of his disciples. From 
what comes after this in the context, indeed, this would seem to 
be a fair construction ; for it is perfectly plain that as Christ said 
these words, he turned and walked away ; and that not only Peter 
followed at the direction of Christ, but also John of his own ac- 
cord, — and it is perfectly natural to suppose that the greater part 
of the disciples would choose to walk after Jesus, when they had 



peter's discipleship. 141 

met under such delightful and unexpected circumstances ; only 
leaving somebody to take care of the boats and fish. Peter fol- 
lowing his Lord as he was commanded, turned around to see who 
was next to him, and seeing John, was instantly seized with a de- 
sire to know the future fortunes of this apostle, who shared with 
him the highest confidence of his Master, and was even before him 
in his personal affections. He accordingly asked — " Lord ! what 
shall become of this man ?" But the answer of Jesus was not at 
all calculated to satisfy his curiosity, though it seemed, in checking 
his inquiries, to intimate darkly, that this young apostle would 
outlive him, and be a witness of the events which had been pre- 
dicted in connexion with the destruction of Jerusalem, and the 
second coming of Christ, in judgment on his Jewish foes. This 
interesting scene here abruptly closes, — the Savior and his follow- 
ers passing off this spot to the places where he remained with 
them during the rest of the few days of his appearance after his 
resurrection. 

The mountain appointed for his meeting, fyc. — It would be hard to settle the local- 
ity of this mountain with so few data as we have ; but a guess or two may be worth 
offering. Grotius concludes it to have been Mount Tabor, " where," as he says, 
"Jesus formerly gave the three a taste of his majesty;" but I have fully shown on 
much better authority, that Tabor was not the mount of the transfiguration; nor can 
we value highly the fact, that " habet veteris famae auctoritatem" for we have abun- 
dant reason to think that in such matters, " the authority of ancient tradition" is not 
worth much. 

There are better reasons, however, for believing Tabor to have been the mountain 
in Galilee, where Christ met his disciples. These are, the fact that it was near the 
lake where he seems to have been just before, and was in the direction of some of his 
former places of resort, and was near the homes of his disciples. None of the objec- 
tions that I brought against its being the mount of the transfiguration, can bear against 
this supposition, but on similar grounds I now agree with the common notion. 

Paulus suggests Mount Carmel, as a very convenient plaae for such a meeting of 
so many persons who wished to assemble unseen, — it being full of caverns, in which 
they might assemble out of view ; while Tabor is wholly open (ganz offen) and 
exposed to view ; for it is evident that many of the exhibitions of Christ to his disci- 
ples after his resurrection, were very secret. For this reason Rosenmuller remarks, 
that Jesus probably appointed some mountain which was lonely and destitute of inha- 
bitants, for the meeting. But Tabor is, I should think, sufficiently retired for the pri- 
vacy which was so desirable, and certainly is capable of accommodating a great num- 
ber of persons on its top, so that they could not be seen from below. The objection 
to Carmel is, that it was a great distance off, on the sea-coast, and should therefore be 
rejected for the same reasons which caused us to reject Tabor for the transfiguration. 

" What shall become of this man ?" — This is the proper translation of the original 
Ovros <5e ri ; (Houtos de ti ?) — an elliptical expression, indeed, but evidently corres- 
ponding to the phrase in Acts xii. 18, where tyevero (egeneto) is the verb expressed, 
and is there justly translated " become" in the common English version. In analogy 
with that passage, and with the English as well as the Greek idiom, I have thus va- 
ried from the common translation here.^ (John xxi. 21.) 

THE ASCENSION. 

The only one of his other interviews with them, to which we 
can follow them, is the last, — when he stood with them at Bethany, 
20 



142 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

on the eastern slope of Mount Olivet, about a mile from Jerusalem, 
where he passed away from their eyes to the glory now consum- 
mated by the complete events of his life and death. Being there 
with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but 
to wait for the promised Comforter from the Father, of which he 
had so often spoken to them : — " For John truly baptized with 
water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many 
days hence." Herein he expressed a beautiful figure, powerfully 
impressive to them, though to most common perceptions perhaps 
not so obvious. In the beginning of those bright revelations of 
the truth which had been made to that age, John, the herald and 
precursor of a greater preacher, had made a bold, rough outset in 
the great work of evangelization. The simple, striking truths 
which he brought forward, were forcibly expressed in the cere- 
mony which he introduced as the sign of conversion ; as the defile- 
ments of the body were washed away in the water, so were the 
deeper pollutions of the soul removed by the inward cleansing ef- 
fected by the change which followed the full knowledge and feel- 
ing of the truth. The gross and tangible liquid which he made 
the sign of conversion, was also an emblem of the rude and pal- 
pable character of the truths which he preached ; so too, the final 
token which the apostles of Jesus, when at last perfectly taught and 
equipped, should receive as the consecrated and regenerated lead- 
ers of the gospel-host, was revealed in a form and in a substance 
as uncontrollably and incalculably above the heavy water, as their 
knowledge and faith and hope were greater than the dim foreshad- 
owing given by tlj£ baptist, of good things to come. Water is a 
heavy fluid, capable of being seen, touched, tasted, weighed, and 
poured ; it has all the grosser and more palpable properties of mat- 
ter : but the air is, even to us, and seemed more particularly to the 
ancients, beyond the apprehension of most of the senses by which 
the properties of bodies are made known to man. We cannot see 
it, or at least are not commonly conscious of its visibility ; yet we 
feel its power to terrify, and to comfort, and see the evidences of 
its might in the ruins of many of the works of man and of nature, 
which oppose its movements. The sources of its power too, seem, 
to a common eye, to be within itself; and when it rises in storms 
and whirlwind, its motions seem like the capricious volitions of a 
sentient principle within it. But water, whenever it moves, seems 
only the inanimate mass which other agents put in motion. The 
awful dash of the cataract is but the continued fall of a heavy 



peter's discipleship. 143 

body impelled by gravity, and even " when the myriad voices of 
ocean roar," the mighty cause of the storm is the unseen power 
of the air, which shows its superiority in the scale of substances, 
by setting in terrible and overwhelming motion the boundless 
deep, that, but for this viewless and resistless agency, would for- 
ever rest a level plain, without a wrinkle on its face. To the 
hearers of Christ more particularly, the air in its motions was a 
most mysterious agency, — a connecting link between powers ma- 
terial and visible, and those too subtle for any thing but pure 
thought to lay hold of. " The wind blew where it would, and 
they heard the sound thereof, but could not tell whence it came 
or whither it went." They might know that it blew from the 
north toward the south, or from the east toward the west, or the 
reverse of these ; but the direction from which it came could not 
point out to them the place where it first arose in its unseen power, 
to pass over the earth, — a source of ceaseless wonder, to the 
learned and unlearned alike. This was the mighty and mysteri- 
ous agency which Jesus Christ now chose as a fit emblem, to rep- 
resent in language, to his apostles, that power from on high so often 
promised. Yet clear as was this image, and often as he had 
warned them of the nature of the duties for which this power was 
to fit them, — in spite of all the deep humiliation which their proud 
earthly hopes had lately suffered, there were still in their hearts, 
deep-rooted longings after the restoration of the ancient dominion of 
Israel, in which they once firmly expected to share. So their 
question, on hearing this charge and renewed promise of power 
hitherto unknown, was — " Lord, wilt thou not at this time restore 
the kingdom to Israel ?" Would not this be a' satisfactory com- 
pletion of that triumph just achieved over the grave, to which the 
vain malice of his foes had sent him? Could his power to do it 
be now doubted ? Why, then, should he hesitate at what all so 
earnestly and confidently hoped ? But Jesus was not to be called 
down from heaven to earth on such errands, nor detained from 
higher glories by such prayers. He knew that this last foolish 
fancy of earthly dominion was to pass away from their minds for- 
ever, as soon as they had seen the event for which he had now 
assembled them. He merely said to them — " It is not for you to 
know the times or the seasons which the Father has appointed, 
according to his own judgment." Jesus knew that, though the 
minds of his disciples were not then sufficiently prepared to appre- 
hend the nature of his heavenly kingdom, yet they, after his depart- 



144 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ure, becoming better instructed, and illuminated by a clearer light 
of knowledge, would of their own accord, lay aside that precon- 
ceived notion about his earthly reign, and would then become fully 
impressed with those things of which he had long before warned 
them, while they were still in the enjoyment of his daily teachings. 
Being now about to bid them farewell, and fearing lest by entirely 
cutting off their present hope, he might for a time overwhelm 
them, — he so moderated his answer, as not to extinguish utterly 
all hope of the kingdom expected by them, nor yet give them 
reason to think that such a dominion as they hoped for was to be 
established. He therefore, to their inquiries whether he would at 
that time restore the ancient kingdom of Israel, replied, that it was 
not for them to know the times which the Father had reserved in 
his own counsels, for the completion of that event. But he went 
on to inform them of something which was for them to know. 
" You shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost shall have come 
upon you ; and you shall be witnesses of these things for me, both 
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and even to the 
farthest parts of the earth." And when he had spoken these 
things, he was taken away from them, as they were looking at 
him, — for a cloud received him out of their sight. And while 
they looked earnestly towards heaven, as he went up, behold, two 
men stood by them in white apparel, and said — " Ye men of Gali- 
lee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, who 
is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 
as you have seen him go into heaven." They now understood 
that they had parted from their loved Master forever, in earthly 
form ; yet the consolations afforded by this last promise of the at- 
tendent spirits, were neither few nor small. To bring about that 
bright return, in whose glories they were to share, was the great 
task to which they devoted their lives ; and they went back to Je- 
rusalem, sorrowful indeed for the removal of their great guide and 
friend, but not sorrowing as those who have no hope. 

To Bethany. — This place was on the side of Olivet, not very far from its summit, 
and almost within sight of Jerusalem. (See notes on pp. 106 and 111.) Conder thus 
describes the place from the accounts of travelers. " Bethany is a small village, to 
the east of the Mount of Olives, not further from Jerusalem than the pinnacle of the 
hill, [about two miles.] There are two roads to it; one passes over the Mount of 
Olives ; the other, which is the shorter and easier, winds around the eastern end, 
having the greater part of the hill on the north, or left hand, and on the right, the el- 
evation, called by some writers, the Mount of Offense. The village of Bethany is 
small and poor, and the cultivation of the soil is much neglected ; but it is a pleasant 
and somewhat romantic spot, sheltered by Mount Olivet on the north, and abounding 
with trees and long grass. The inhabitants are Arabs." (Modern Traveler, vol. I. 
Palestine, p. 170.) 



peter's discipleship. 145 

" Baptized with the Holy Ghost"— The original Greek here contains an allusion 
to the different characters of the two natural substances named as the symbols of re- 
generation, — an allusion which, though palpable, on a bare inspection, to a Greek 
scholar, can not be appreciated by a reader of the mere English version, without a 
little explanation. The Greek word, which is translated " Spirit," and " Ghost," in 
the New Testament, is Uvevpa, (Pneurna,) a word which primarily means "wind," 
and is actually thus translated in many passages of the New Testament, and indeed 
in all passages where there is not a palpable reference to a higher, though derivative 
sense. Thus in John iii. 8, this same word, though translated " wind," in the former 
part of the verse, is rationally translated " spirit" in the end of the verse; because the 
word is manifestly used in these two opposite senses in the two places, — the primary 
signification thus offering a happy illustration of the secondary. So, too, in this pas- 
sage, the two elements, (as they are often called,) water and air, are made to illus- 
trate the nature of the two spiritual conditions of the apostles, before and after the 
descent of the Holy Ghost, and to represent the exaltation which was then to take 
place in their views, hopes, and conceptions, — expressing, in short, the difference 
between their spiritual condition during their discipleship, and that to which they 
rose in the very outset of their true apostleship. This is the distinction implied in 
the doubly expressive language of the original ; and this is what I have endeavored 
to present and defend in this part of the narrative. 

The date of the Ascension is fixed, by the most rational calculations that can be 
made with such few means, in the thirty-second year of the common Christian era, 
corresponding to the nineteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. The time of 
the year may also be ascertained with some degree of probability. The passover is 
commonly believed to have been celebrated on the fourteenth of March. Jesus was 
crucified on the day before, and was first seen again by his disciples, on the day fol- 
lowing ; which would be the fifteenth of the month. Luke says, he continued with 
them "forty days," (Acts i. 3,) which brings the date of the ascension to a day near 
the end of April. The discussion of disputed points respecting the year, will be no- 
ticed in another place. 

Here ceased their course of instruction under their Divine Mas- 
ter ; laying down their character as Disciples, they now took up 
the higher dignity, responsibility, and labors of Apostles. Here, 
too, ceases the record of "Peter's Discipleship ;" — no longer a 
learner and follower of any one on earth, he is exalted to the new 
duties and dangers of the Apostleship, of which the still more 
interesting story here begins ; and he must henceforth bear the new 
character and title of " Peter the teacher and leader? 



146 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

II. PETER'S APOSTLESHIP; 

OR, 

PETER THE TEACHER AND LEADER. 



THE PENTECOST. 



After the ascension, all the apostles seem to have removed their 
families and business from Galilee, and to have made Jerusalem 
their permanent abode. From this time, no more mention is made 
of any part of Galilee as the home of Peter or his friends ; and 
even the lake, with its cities, so long hallowed by the presence and 
the deeds of the Son of Man, was thenceforth entirely left to the 
low and vulgar pursuits which the dwellers of that region had 
formerly followed upon it, without disturbance from the preaching 
and the miracles of the Nazarene. The apostles rinding themselves 
in Jerusalem the object of odious, or at best of contemptuous no- 
tice from the great body of the citizens, — being known as Gali- 
leans and as followers of the crucified Jesus, — therefore settled 
themselves in such a manner as would best secure their comfort- 
able and social subsistence. When they came back to the city 
from Galilee, (having parted from their Master on the Olive mount, 
about a mile off,) they went up into a chamber in a private house, 
where all the eleven passed the time, together with their wives, 
and the women who had followed Jesus, and with Mary, the mother 
of Jesus, and his brethren. These all continued with one accord 
in this place, with prayer and supplication, at the same time, no 
doubt, comforting and instructing one another in those things of 
which a knowledge would be requisite or convenient for the suc- 
cessful prosecution of their great enterprise, on which they were 
soon to embark. In the course of these devout and studious pur- 
suits, the circumstances and number of those enrolled by Christ 
in the apostolic band, became naturally a subject of consideration 
and discussion ; and they were particularly led to notice the gap 
made among them, by the sad and disgraceful defection of Judas 
Iscariot. This deficiency the Savior, after his resurrection, had 
not regarded as sufficiently important to require an appointment 



peter's apostleship. 147 

immediately from himself, during the remaining brief period of 
his stay among them, when far more weighty matters called for his 
attention. It was their wish, however, to complete their number 
as originally constituted by their Master ; and in reference to the 
immediate execution of this pious and wise purpose, Peter, as their 
leader, forcibly and eloquently addressed them, when not less than 
one hundred and twenty were assembled. The details of his 
speech, and the conclusion of the business, are deferred to the ac- 
count of the lives of those persons who were the subjects of the 
transaction. In mentioning it now, it is only worth while to no- 
tice, that Peter here stands most distinctly and decidedly forward, 
as the director of the whole affair, and such was his weight in the 
management of a matter so important, that his words seem to have 
had the force of law ; for without further discussion, commending 
the decision to God in prayer, they adopted the action suggested 
by him, and filled the vacancy with the person apparently desig- 
nated by God. In the faithful and steady confidence, that they 
were soon to receive (according to the promise of their risen Lord) 
some new and remarkable gift from above, which was to be to them 
at once the seal of their divine commission, and their most import- 
ant equipment for their new duties, the apostles waited in Jerusa- 
lem until the great Jewish feast of the pentecost. This feast is so 
named from a Greek word meaning "fiftieth" because it always 
came on the fiftieth day after the day of the passover-feast. Jesus 
had finally disappeared from his disciples about forty days after his 
resurrection, — that is, forty-two days after the great day of the pass- 
over, which will leave just one week for the time which passed 
between the ascension and the day of pentecost. These seven 
days the apostolic assembly had passed in such pursuits as might 
form the best preparation for the great event they were expecting. 
Assembled in their sacred chamber, they occupied themselves in 
prayer and exhortation. At length the great feast arrived, on which 
the Jews, according to the special command of Moses, commemo- 
rated the day, on which of old, God gave the law to their fathers, 
on Mount Sinai, amid thunder and lightning. On this festal occa- 
sion, great numbers of Jews who had settled in different remote 
parts of the world, were in the habit of coming back to their 
father-land, and their holy city, to renew their devotion in the one 
great temple of their ancient faith ; there to offer up the sacrifices 
of gratitude to their fathers' God, who had prospered them even in 
strange lands among the heathen. The Jews were then, as now, 



148 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

a wandering, colonizing people, wherever they went ; yet remained 
distinct in manners, dress, and religion, never mixing in marriage 
with the people among whom they dwelt, but everywhere bringing 
up a true lsraelitish race, to worship the God of Abraham with a 
pure religion, uncontaminated by the idolatries around them. 
There was hardly any part of the world, where Roman conquest 
had planted its golden eagles, to which Jewish mercantile enter- 
prise did not also push its adventurous way, in the steady pursuit 
of gainful traffic. The three grand divisions of the world swarm- 
ed with these faithful followers of the true law of God ; and from 
the remotest regions, each year, gathered a fresh host of pilgrims, 
who came from afar, many for the first time, to worship the God of 
their fathers in their fathers' land. Amid this fast-gathering 
throng, on the morning of that great feast-day, the feeble band of 
the apostles, unknown and unnoticed, were assembled in one of 
the oratories which filled the upper range of the inner court of the 
temple, where they were employed in their usual devout occupa- 
tions. Not merely the twelve, but all the friends of Christ in Je- 
rusalem, to the number of one hundred and twenty, were here 
awaiting, in prayer, the long promised Comforter from the Father. 
Suddenly the sound of a mighty wind, rushing upon the building, 
roared around them, and filled the apartments with its appalling 
noise, — rousing them from the religious quiet to which they had 
given themselves up. Nor were their ears alone made sensible of 
the approach of some strange event. In the midst of the gather- 
ing gloom which the wind-driven clouds naturally spread over all, 
flashes of light were seen by them ; and lambent flames, playing 
around, lighted at last upon them. At once the anxious prayers 
with which they had awaited the coming of the Comforter, were 
hushed ; they needed no longer to urge the fulfilment of their 
Master's word ; for in the awful rush of that mighty wind, they 
recognized the voice they had so long expected, and in that sol- 
emn sound they knew the tone of the promised Spirit. The ap- 
proach of that feast-day must have raised their expectations of this 
promised visitation to the highest pitch. They knew that this 
great national festival was celebrated in commemoration of the 
giving of the old law on Mount Sinai to their fathers, through Mo- 
ses, and that no occasion could be more appropriate or impressive 
for the full revelation of the perfect law which the last restorer of 
Israel had come to teach and proclaim. The ancient law had been 
given on Sinai, in storm and thunder and fire ; when, therefore, 



peter's apostleship. 149 

they heard the roar of the mighty wind about them, the firm con- 
viction of the approach of their new revelation must have pos- 
sessed their minds at once. They saw too, the dazzling flash of 
flame among them, and perceived, with awe, strange masses of light, 
in the shape of tongues, settling with a tremulous motion on the 
head of each of them. The tempest and the fire were the sym- 
bols of God's presence on Sinai of old ; and from the same signs 
ioined with these new phenomena, they now learned that the aid 
of God was thus given to equip them with the powers and ener- 
gies needful for their success in the wider publication of the doc- 
trine of Christ. With these tokens of a divine presence around 
them, their feelings and thoughts were raised to the highest pitch 
of joy and exultation ; and being conscious of a new impulse work- 
ing in them, they were seized with a sacred glow of enthusiasm, so 
that they gave utterance to these new emotions in words as new to 
them as their sensations, and spoke in different languages, praising 
God for this glorious fulfilment of his promise, as this holy influ- 
ence inspired them. 

An upper room. — The location of this chamber has been the subject of a vast quan- 
tify of learned discussion, a complete view of which would far exceed my limits. 
The great point mooted has been, whether this place was in a private house or in the 
temple. The passage in Luke xxiv. 53, where it is said that the apostles " were con- 
tinually in the temple, praising and blessing God," has led many to suppose that the 
same writer, in this continuation of the gospel story, must have had reference to 
some part of the temple, in speaking of the upper room as the place of their abode. 
In the Acts ii. 46, also, he has made a similar remark, which I can best explain when 
that part of the story is given. The learned Krebsius (Obs. in N. T. e Jos. pp. 162 — 
164) has given a fine argument, most elegantly elaborated with quotations from Jose- 
phus, in which he makes it apparently quite certain, from the grammatical construc- 
tion, and from the correspondence of terms with Josephus's description of the temple, 
that this upper room must have been there. It is true, that Josephus mentions par- 
ticularly a division of the inner temple, on the upper side of it, under the name of 
vnep&ov, (hyperoion,) which is the/word used by Luke in this passage; but Krebsius, in 
attempting to prove this to be a place in which the disciples might be constantly as- 
sembled, has made several errors in the plan of the later temple, which I have not 
time to point oat, since there are other proofs of the impossibility of their meeting 
there, which will take up all the space I can bestow on the subject. Krebsius has 
furthermore overlooked entirely the following part of the text in Acts i. 13, where it 
is said, that when they returned to Jerusalem, " they went up into an upper room 
where they had been staying" in Greek, ov rjaav /cara^oi/res, (hou esan katamenontes,} 
com. trans. " they abode" The true force of this use of the present participle with 
the verb of existence is repeated action, as is frequently true of the imperfect of that 
verb in such combinations. Kuinoel justly gives it this force, — " ubi commorari sive 
convenire solebant." But the decisive proof against the notion that this room was in 
the temple, is this : — in specifying the persons there assembled, it is said, (Acts i. 14,) 
that the disciples were assembled there with the women of the company. Now it is 
most distinctly specified in all descriptions of the temple, that the women were al- 
ways limited to one particular division of the temple, called the " women's court." 
Josephus is very particular in specifying this important fact in the arrangements of 
the temple. (Jew. "War, V. v. 2.) " A place on this part of the temple specially de- 
voted to the religious use of the women, being entirely separated from the rest by a 
wall, it was necessary that there should be another entrance to this. * * * There 
were on the other sides of this place two gates, one on the north and one on the south, 
21 



150 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

through which the court of the women was entered ; for women were not allowed to 
enter through any others." (Also V. v. 6.) " But women, even when pure, were not 
allowed to pass within the limit before mentioned." This makes it evident beyond 
all doubt, that women could never be allowed to assemble with men in this upper 
chamber within the forbidden precincts, to which indeed it was impossible for them 
to have access, entering the temple through two private doors, and using only one 
court, which was cut off by an impenetrable wall, from all communication with any 
other part of the sacred inclosure. 

This seems to me an argument abundantly sufficient to upset all that has ever been 
said in favor of the location of this upper apartment within the temple ; and my only 
wonder is, that so many learned critics should have perplexed themselves and others 
with various notions about the matter, when this single fact is so perfectly conclusive. 

The tipper room, then, must have been in some private house, belonging to some 
wealthy friend of Christ, who gladly received the apostles within his walls. Every 
Jewish house had in its upper story a large room of this sort, which served as a 
dining-room, (Mark xiv. 15: Luke xxii. 12,) a parlor, or an oratory for private or 
social worship. (See Blooinfield's Annot. Acts i. 13.) Some have very foolishly 
supposed this to have been the house of Simon the leper, (Matt. xxvi. 6 ;) but his 
house was in Bethany, and therefore by no means answers the description of their 
entering it after their return to Jerusalem from Bethany. Others, with more proba- 
bility, the house of Nicodemus, the wealthy Pharisee; but the most reasonable sup- 
position, perhaps, is that of Beza, who concludes this to have been the house of Mary, 
the mother of John Mark, which we know to have been afterwards used as a place 
of religious assembly. (Acts xii. 12.) Others have also, with some reason, suggested 
that this was no doubt the same " upper room furnished," in which Jesus had eaten 
the last supper with his disciples. These two last suppositions are not inconsistent 
with each other. (See Poole's Synopsis.) 

Tongues of fire. — This is a classic Hebrew expression for " a lambent flame," and 
is the same used by Isaiah, (v. 24,) where the Hebrew is vx p»"?, (leshon esh,) " a 
tongue of fire;" — com. trans., simply " fire." In that passage there seems to be a sort 
of poetical reference to the tongue, as an organ used in devouring food, (" as the 
tongue of fire devoureth the stubble,") but there is abundant reason to believe that the 
expression was originally deduced from the natural similitude of a rising flame to a 
tongue, being pointed and flexible, as well as waving in its outlines, and playing 
about with a motion like that of licking, whence the Latin expression of " a lambent 
flame," — from lambo, " lick." Wetstein aptly observes, that a flame of fire, in the 
form of a divided tongue, was a sign of the gift of tongues, corresponding to the 
Latin expression bilinguis, and the Greek tiyXuvaos, (diglossos,) " two-tongued," as 
applied to persons skilled in a plurality of languages. He also, with his usual classic 
richness, gives a splendid series of quotations illustrative of this idea of a lambent 
flame denoting the presence of divine favor, or inspiration imparted to the person 
about whom the symbol appeared. Bloomfield copies these quotations, and also 
draws illustrations in point, from other sources. 

My own opinion of the nature of this whole phenomenon is that of Michaelis, Ro- 
senmuller, Paulus, and Kuinoel, — that a tremendous tempest actually descended at 
the time, bringing down clouds highly charged with electricity, which was not dis- 
charged in the usual mode, by thunder and lightning, but quietly streamed from the 
air to the earth, and wherever it passed from the air upon any tolerable conductor, it 
made itself manifest in the darkness occasioned by the thick clouds, in the form of 
those pencils of rays, with which every one is familiar who has seen electrical ex- 
periments in a dark room; and which are well described by the expression "cloven 
tongues of fire." The temple itself being covered and spiked with gold, the best of 
all conductors, would quietly draw off a vast quantity of electricity, which, passing 
through the building, would thus manifest itself on those within the chambers of the 
temple, if we may suppose the apostles to have been there assembled. These appear- 
ances are very common in peculiar electrical conditions of the air, and there are 
many of my readers, no doubt, who have seen them. At sea, they are often seen at 
night on the ends of the masts and yards, and are well known to sailors by the name 
which the Portuguese give them, " corpos santos" — " holy bodies," — connecting them 
with some popish superstitions. A reference to the large quotations given by Wet- 
stein and Bloomfield, will show that this display at the pentecost is not the only occa- 
sion on which these electric phenomena were connected with spiritual mysteries. No 
one would have the slightest hesitation in explaining these passages in other credible 
historians, by this physical view ; and I know no rule in logic or common sense, — no 



peter's apostleship. 151 

religions doctrine or theological principle, which compels me to explain two precisely- 
similar phenomena of this character, in two totally different ways, because one of 
them is found in a heathen history, and the other in a sacred and inspired record. 
The vehicle thus chosen was not unworthy of making a peculiar manifestation of 
the presence of God, and of the outpouring of his spirit; — nor was it an unprece- 
dented mode of his display. The awful thunder which shook old Sinai, and the 
lightnings which dazzled the eyes of the amazed Israelites, were real thunder and 
lightning, nor will an honest and reverent interpretation of the sacred text allow us 
to pronounce them acoustical and optical delusions. If they were real thunder and 
lightning, they were electrical discharges, and cannot be conceived of in any other 
way. Why should we hesitate at the notion that He who " holds the winds in the 
hollow of his hand," and " makes a way for the lightning of thunder," should use 
these same mighty instruments as the symbols of his presence, to strike awe into the 
hearts of men, — making the physical the token of the moral power, and accomplish- 
ing the deep prophetic meaning of the solemn words of the Psalmist, — " He walks 
upon the wings of the wind — he makes the winds his messengers — the lightnings his 
ministers." For this seems the just translation of Ps. civ. 4. (See Lowth, Clarke, 
Whitby, Calmet, Thomson, &c.) But Jaspis, Bloomfield, Stuart, &c, support the 
common version. 

The miracle, in short, did not consist in producing the sensations of sight and 
hearing, without light and sound to cause them ; it was not the mere impression on 
the minds of those who are said to have heard the " rushing sound," and to have 
seen the " lambent flame ;" but it was the wonderful concurrence of these material 
agencies, with the great moral and spiritual changes which then took place in the 
assembly, and with the solemn parting prediction of the ascending Messiah. Either 
there was no real light, and no real motion in the air, or there was a material agency 
similar to what I have described ; and such an illustration of the occurrence as I 
have offered, — so far from impairing the miraculous and divine character of the 
event,— must serve in every intelligent mind, to support and enlighten a rational faith 
in the scriptural record, by showing how the miracle occurred, without in the least 
impairing a belief of the direct agency of God in this event. 

Were all assembled, fyc. — It has been questioned whether this term, " all" refers 
to the one hundred and twenty, or merely to the apostles, who are the persons men- 
tioned in the preceding verse, (Acts i. 26, ii. 1,) and to whom it might be grammati- 
cally limited. There is nothing to hinder the supposition that all the brethren were 
present, and Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustin, and other ancient fathers, confirm this 
view. The place in which they met, need not, of course, be the same where the 
events of the preceding chapter occurred, but was very likely some one of the thirty 
apartments, (oiVoi, oikoi, Jos. Ant. viii. 3, 2,) which surrounded the inner court of the 
temple, where the apostles might very properly assemble at the third hour, which 
was the hour of morning prayer, and which is shown in verse 15, to have been the 
time of this occurrence. Besides, it is hard to conceive of this vast concourse of 
persons (verse 41) as occurring in any other place than the temple, in whose vast and 
thronged courts it might easily happen ; for Josephus says " that the apartments 
around the courts opened into each other," wav Sia d\\fi\uv, " and there were en- 
trances to them on both sides, from the gate of the temple," thus affording a ready 
access on any sudden noise attracting attention towards them. 

Foreign Jews staying in Jerusalem. — The phrase " dwelling" (Acts ii. 5,) in the 
Greek, KarotKovvres, (katoikountes^) does not necessarily imply a fixed residence, as 
Wolf and others try to make it appear, but is used in the Alexandrine version, in the 
sense of temporary residence ; and it seems here to be applied to foreign Jews, who 
chose to remain there, from the passover to the pentecost, but whose home was not in 
Jerusalem ; for the context speaks of them as dwellers in Mesopotamia, &c. (verse 
9.) A distinction is also made between two sorts of Jews among those who had come 
from Rome, — the Jews by birth and the proselytes, (verse 10,) showing that the Mo- 
saic faith was flourishing, and making converts from the Gentiles there. 

peter's sermon. 

This wonderful event took place in the chamber of the temple, 
which they had used as a place of worship ever since their Lord's 
departure. As the whole temple was now constantly thronged 



152 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

with worshipers, who were making" their offerings on this great 
feast-day, this room in which the followers of Jesus were devoutly- 
employed, must, as well as all the others, have been visited by new 
comers : for the mere prior occupation of the room by the disci- 
ples, could not entitle them to exclude from a public place of that 
kind any person who might choose to enter. The multitude of 
devotees who filled all parts of the temple, soon heard of what was 
going on in this apartment, and came together to see and hear for 
themselves. When the inquiring crowds reached the spot, they 
found the followers of Christ breaking out in loud expressions of 
praise to God, and of exhortation, each in such a language as best 
suited his powers of expression, not confining themselves to the 
Hebrew, which in all places of public worship, and especially in 
Jerusalem on the great festivals, was the only language of devotion. 
Among the crowds that thronged to the place of this strange oc- 
currence, were Jews from many distant regions, whose language 
or dialects were as widely various as the national names which 
they bore. Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, those who dwelt 
in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pam- 
phylia, Egypt, and Africa, and even some Roman proselytes, were 
all among those who heard the spirit-moved language of the dis- 
ciples. Some of the more scrupulous among these foreign Jews, 
were, probably, notwithstanding their amazement, somewhat offend- 
ed at this profanation of worship, in the public use of these heathen 
languages for the purposes of devotion ; and with a mixture of 
wonder and displeasure they asked, " Are not all these men who 
are talking in these various languages, Galileans ? How then are 
they able to show such an immense diversity of expression, so 
that all of us, even those from the most distant countries, hear 
them in our various languages, setting forth the praises of God ?" 
And they were all surprised and perplexed, and said one to anoth- 
er, " What will this come to ?" But to some who were present, 
the whole proceeding was so little impressive, and had so little ap- 
pearance of any thing miraculous, that they were moved only to 
expressions of contempt, and said, in a tone of ridicule, " These 
men are drunk on sweet wine.'* This seems to show, that to them 
there was no conclusive evidence of Divine agency in this speak- 
ing in various languages ; and they, no doubt, supposed that among 
these Galileans were foreigners also, from many other parts of the 
world, who, mingling with Christ's disciples, had joined in their 
devotions, and caught their enthusiasm. Seeing this assembly 



peter's apostleship. 153 

thus made up, now occupied in speaking violently and confusedly 
in these various languages, they at once concluded that they were 
under the influence of some artificial exhilarant, and supposed, 
that during this great festal occasion, they had been betrayed into 
some unseasonable jollity, and were now under the excitement of 
hard drinking. Such as took this cool view of the matter, there- 
fore, immediately explained the whole, by charging the excited 
speakers with drunkenness. But Peter, on hearing this scandalous 
charge, rose up, as the leader and defender of these objects of pub- 
lic notice, and repelled the contemptuous suggestion that he and 
his companions had been abusing the occasion of rational religious 
enjoyment, to the purposes of intemperate and riotous merriment. 
Calling on all present for their attention, both foreign Jews and 
those settled in Jerusalem, he told them that the violent emotions 
which had excited their surprise could not be caused by wine, as it 
was then but nine o'clock in the morning, and as they well knew, 
it was contrary to all common habits of life to suppose that, before 
that early hour, these men could have been exposed to any such 
temptation. They knew that the universal fashion of the devout 
Jews was to take no food whatever on the great days of public 
worship, until after their return from morning prayers in the tem- 
ple. How, then, could these men, thus devoutly occupied since 
rising, have found opportunity to indulge in intoxicating drinks ? 
Peter then proceeded to refer them for a more just explanation 
of this strange occurrence, to the long recorded testimonies of the 
ancient prophets, which most distinctly announced such powerful 
displays of religious zeal and knowledge, as about to happen in 
those later days, of which the present moment seemed the begin- 
ning. He quoted to them a passage from Joel, which pointedly 
set forth these and many other wonders with the distinctness of 
reality, and showed them how all these striking words were con- 
nected with the fate of that Jesus whom they had so lately sacri- 
ficed. He now, for the first time, publicly declared to them, that 
this Jesus, whom they had vainly subjected to a disgraceful death, 
had by the power of God been raised from the grave to a glorious 
and immortal life. Of this fact, he assured them that all the dis- 
ciples were the witnesses, having seen him with their own eyes 
after his return to life. He now showed them in what manner 
the resurrection of Jesus might be explained and illustrated by the 
words of David, and how the psalm itself might be made to ap- 
pear in a new light, by interpreting it in accordance with these 



154 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

recent events. He concluded this high-toned and forcible appeal 
to scripture and to fact, by calling them imperatively to learn and 
believe : — " Let all the house of Israel know, then, that God has 
made this Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ." 
This declaration, thus solemnly made and powerfully supported, in 
connexion with the surprising circumstances which had just oc- 
curred, had a most striking and convincing effect on the hearers ; 
and almost the whole multitude giving way to their feelings of awe 
and compunction, being stung with the remembrance of the share 
they had had in the murder of Jesus, cried out, as with one voice, 
" Brethren, what shall we do V- Peter's instant reply was, " Change 
your hearts, and be each one of you baptized to the name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of your sins ; and you shall receive the 
gift of the Holy Spirit." That same divine influence, whose in- 
workings had just been so wonderfully displayed before their eyes, 
was now promised to them, as the seal of Christ's acceptance of the 
offer of themselves in the preliminary sign of baptism. To them 
and to their children, upon whom, fifty days before, they had sol- 
emnly invoked the curse of the murdered Redeemer's blood, was 
this benignant promise of pardoning love now made ; and not only 
to them, but to all, however far off in place or in feeling, whom their 
common Lord and God should call to him. Inspired with the 
glorious prospect of success now opening to him, and moved to 
new earnestness by their devout and alarmed attention, Peter zeal- 
ously went on, and spoke to them many other words, of which the 
sacred historian has given us only the brief but powerful conclud- 
ing exhortation : — " Sutler yourselves to be saved from this perverse 
generation ;" — from those who had involved themselves and their 
race in the evils resulting to them from their wicked rejection of 
the truth offered by Jesus. The whole Jewish nation stood at that 
time charged with the guilt of rejecting the Messiah ; nor could 
any individual be cleared from his share of responsibility for the 
crime, except by coming out and distinctly professing his faith in 
Christ. 

Change your hearts. — I have, in general, given this translation of MeravosTre, (Meta- 
noeite,) as more minutely faithful to the etymology of the word, and also accordant 
with popular religious forms of expression ; though the common translation is unob- 
jectionable. 

THE CHURCH'S INCREASE. 

The success which followed Peter's first effort in preaching the 
gospel of his murdered and risen Lord, was most cheering. Those 
who heard him on this occasion, gladly receiving his words, were 






peter's apostleship. 155 

baptized ; and on that same day converts to the number of three 
thousand were added to the disciples. How must these glorious 
results, and all the events of the day, have lifted up the hearts of 
the apostles, and moved them to new and still bolder efforts in 
their great cause ! They now knew and felt the true force of their 
Master's promise, that they should " be indued with power from 
on high ;" for what less than such power could in one day have 
wrought such a change in the hearts of the haughty Jews, as to 
make them submissive hearers of the followers of the lately cru- 
cified Nazarene, and bring over such immense numbers of con- 
verts to the new faith, as to swell the small and feeble band of 
disciples to more than twenty times its former size ? Nor did the 
impression made on this multitude prove to be a mere transient ex- 
citement ; for we are assured that " they held steadily to the doctrine 
taught by the apostles, and kept company with them in all their 
daily religious duties and social enjoyments." So permanent and 
complete was this change, as to cause universal astonishment 
among those who had not been made the subjects of it ; and the 
number of those who heard the amazing story, must have been so 
much the greater at that time, as there was then at Jerusalem so 
large an assemblage of Jews from almost every part of the civil- 
ized world. On this account, It seems to have been most wisely 
ordered that this first public preaching of the Christian faith, and 
this great manifestation of its power over the hearts of men, should 
take place on this festal occasion, when its influence might at once 
more widely and quickly spread than by any other human means. 
The foreign Jews then at Jerusalem, being witnesses of these won- 
derful things, would not fail, on their return home, to give the 
whole affair a prominent place in their account of their pilgrim- 
age, when they recounted their various adventures and observa- 
tions, to their inquiring friends. Among these visiters, too, were 
probably some who were themselves, on this occasion, converted 
to the new faith, and each one of these would be a sort of mis- 
sionary, preaching Christ crucified to his countrymen in his distant 
home, and telling them of a way to God, which their fathers had 
not known. The many miracles wrought by the apostles, as signs 
of their authority, served to swell the fame of the Christian cause, 
and added new incidents to the fast-traveling and far-spreading 
story, which, wherever it went, prepared the people to hear the 
apostles with interest and respect, when, in obedience to their 



156 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Lord's last charge, they should go forth to distant lands, preaching 
the gospel. 

peter's prominence. 

This vast addition to the assembly of the disciples at Jerusalem, 
made it necessary for the apostles to complete some farther arrange- 
ments, to suit their enlarged circumstances ; and at this period the 
first church of Christ in the world seems to have so far perfected 
its organization as to answer very nearly to the modern idea of a 
permanent religious community. The church of Jerusalem was 
an individual worshiping assembly, that at this time met daily for 
prayer and exhortation, with twelve ministers who officiated as 
occasion needed, without any order of service, as far as we know, 
except such as depended on their individual weight of character, 
their natural abilities, or their knowledge of the doctrines of their 
Lord. Among these, the three most favored by Christ's private 
instructions would have a natural pre-eminence, and above all, he 
who had been especially named as the rock on which the church 
should be built, and as the keeper of the keys of the kingdom, and 
had been solemnly and repeatedly commissioned as the pastor and 
leader of the flock, would now maintain an undisputed pre-emi- 
nence, unless he should by some actual misconduct prove himself 
unworthy of the rank. Such a pre-eminence it is unquestionable 
that Peter always did maintain among the apostles ; and so deci- 
dedly, too, that, on every occasion when any thing was to be said 
or done by them as a body, Peter invariably stands out alone, as 
the undisputed representative and head of the whole community. 
Indeed the whole history of the apostles, after the ascension, gives 
but a single instance in which the words of any one of the twelve 
besides Peter are recorded, or where any one of them, except in 
that single case, is named as having said any thing whatever. On 
every occasion of this sort, the matters referred to were no more 
the concern of Peter than of any other of the twelve, yet they 
all seem to have been perfectly satisfied with quietly giving up the 
expression of their views to him. One instance, indeed, occurs, 
in which some persons attempted to blame his conduct when on a 
private mission ; but even then his explanation of his behavior 
hushed all complaint. Often when he was publicly engaged in 
the company of John, the most beloved of Jesus, and his faithful 
witness, it would seem that if there was any assumption by Peter 
of more than due importance, this distinguished son of Zebedee 



PETER/S APOSTLESHIP. 157 

or his equally honored brother would have taken such a share in 
speaking and doing, as would have secured them an equal promi- 
nence. But no such low jealousies ever appear to have arisen 
among the apostles ; not one seems to have had a thought about 
making himself an object of public notice ; but their common 
and unanimous care was to advance their great Master's cause, 
without reference to individual distinctions. Peter's natural force 
of character, and high place in his Master's confidence, justi- 
fied the ascendency which he, on all public occasions, claimed 
as his undisputable right, in which the rest acquiesced without a 



THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY. 

In the constitution of the first church of Christ, there seems to 
have been no other noticeable peculiarity, than the number of its 
ministers, and even this in reality amounted to nothing ; for the 
decided pre-eminence and superior qualifications of Peter were 
such as, in effect, to make him the pastor and chief preacher for a 
long time, while the other apostles do not seem to have performed 
any duty much higher than that of mere assistants to him, or ex- 
horters, and perhaps teachers. Still, not a day could pass when 
every one of them would not be required to labor in some way 
for the gospel ; and indeed the sacred historian uniformly speaks 
of them in the plural number, as laboring together and alike in 
the common cause. Thus they went on quietly and humbly la- 
boring, with a pure zeal which was as indifferent to fame and 
earthly honor, as to the acquisition or preservation of earthly 
wealth. They are said to have held all things common ; which is 
to be understood, however, not as implying literally that the rich 
renounced all individual right to what they owned, but that they 
stood ready to provide for the needy to the full extent of their 
property, — and in that sense, all these pecuniary resources were 
made as common as if they were formally thrown into one public 
stock, out of which every man drew as suited his own needs. To 
an ordinary reader, this passage, taken by itself, might seem to 
convey fully the latter meaning ; but a reference to other passages, 
and to the whole history of the primitive Christians, shows clearly, 
that a real and literal community of goods was totally unknown 
to them, — but that, in the bold and free language of the age and 
country, they are said to have " had all things in common f — just 

as among us, a man may say to his friend, " My house is yours ; 
22 



158 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

consider every thing I have as your own property f and yet no 
one would ever construe this into a surrender of his individual 
rights of possession. So the wealthy converts to the Christian 
faith sold their estates and goods, as occasion required, for the 
sake of having ready money to relieve the wants of those who had 
no means of support. Thus provided for, the apostles steadily 
pursued their great work, passing the greater part of every day in 
the temple ; but taking their food at home, they ate what was so 
freely and generously provided, with thankful and unanxious 
hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. In 
these happy and useful employments they continued, every day 
finding new sources of enjoyment and new encouragement, in the 
accession of redeemed ones to their blessed community. 

Taking their food at home. — This is my interpretation of kXCjvtis Kar oIkov aprov, 
(klontes kaV oikon arton.) Acts ii. 46, com. trans. " breaking bread from house to 
house," a version which is still supported by many names of high authority ; but the 
attendent circumstances here seem to justify this variation from them. A reference 
to the passage will show that the historian is speaking of their regular, unanimous 
attendence in the temple, and says, " they attended every day with one accord in the 
temple," that is, during the regular hours of daily worship; but as they would not 
suffer untimely devotion to interfere with their reasonable conveniences, he adds, 
" they broke bread," (a Hebraistic form of expression for simply " taking food,") " at 
home, and partook of their food in humility and thankfulness." This seems to me, 
to require a sort of opposition in sense between 'Upov, (hieron,) " temple," and o7ko$, 
(oikos,) " house" or " home ;" for it seems as if the writer of the Acts wished in these 
few words, to give a complete account of the manner in which they occupied them- 
selves, devoting all their time to public devotion in the temple, except that, as was 
most seemly, they returned to their houses to take their necessary food, which they 
did humbly and joyfully. But the distributive force which some wish to put upon 
/car oikov, by translating it " from house to house," is one which does not seem to be 
required at all by any thing in the connexion, and one which needs a vast deal of 
speculation and explanation to make it appear why they should go " from house to 
house," about so simple a matter of fact as that of eating their victuals, which every 
man could certainly do to best advantage at one steady boarding-place. That the ex- 
pression /car' oIkov most commonly means " in a house,' 5 or " at home," is abundantly 
proved by standard common Greek usage, as shown in the best Lexicons. But Kara, 
in connexion with a singular noun, has the distributive force only when the noun it- 
self is of such a character and connexion in the sentence as to require this meaning. 
Thus Kara fifjva (kata mend) would hardly ever be suspected of any other meaning 
than " monthly," or " every month," or " from month to month ;" — so Kara n6\eis (kata 
poleis) means " from city to city," but the singular Kara no\iv, (kata polin,) almost uni- 
formly means "in a city," without any distributive application, except where the 
other words in the sentence imply this idea. (Acts xv. 21, xx. 23.) But here the 
simple, common meaning of the preposition Kara, when governing the accusative, 
(that is, the meaning of " at" or " in" a place,) is not merely allowed, but required by 
the other words in the connexion, in order to give a meaning which requires no 
other explanation, and which corresponds to the word " temple" in the other clause; 
for the whole account seems to require an opposition in these words, as describing 
the two places where the disciples passed their time. 

There are great names, however, opposed to this view, which seem enough to 
overpower almost any testimony that can be brought in defense of an interpretation 
which they reject. Among these are Kuinoel, Rosenmuiler, Ernesti, and Bloom- 
field, whose very names will perhaps weigh more with many, than the hasty state- 
ment of the contrary view which I am able here to give. Yet I am not wholly with- 
out the support of high authorities; for Oecumenius, Grotius, Hammond, De Dieu, 
Bengel. Heinrichs, Bretschneider, and A. Clarke, reject the distributive sense here. 



peter's apostleship. 159 

In regard to the application of the words kXwi/tes aprov, (Jclontes arlon,) " breaking 
bread," — the most valued commentators have differed widely. Kuinoel, Rosenmul- 
ler, and others quoted by them, have maintained that the words refer to the ministra- 
tions of the Agapae, or love-feasts, which were an ordinance peculiar to the apostolic 
days, consisting of a free, common entertainment, furnished by the richer members 
of the Christian community for all the church, who partook without distinction. 
(Mosheim, Ecc. Hist. I. i. 2. chap. 4. § 7.) This ordinance was totally distinct from the 
sacramental communion of the Lord's supper, which had no connexion with it, ex- 
cept as both were sometimes celebrated consecutively on the same occasion. Kuinoel 
and Rosenmuller have very ably established this distinction, and have very clearly 
refuted the notion of Cornelius a Lapide, Tirinus, Heinrichs, and others, who have 
considered these words as referring to the sacrament. This opinion has been main- 
tained by various commentators, Scott, Henry, &c, but has no critical authority 
whatever. But though rejecting this with the decisive condemnation which its char- 
acter and the authority of its opposers justifies, I have yet been unable to accept the 
exposition of Kuinoel and others, who refer the words to the Agapae ; because the 
true force of the original expression, and the words immediately following in the 
context, seem to require the far simpler meaning which I have given in the text 
above, — " eating," or " taking food," — an interpretation sanctioned by the eminent 
authority of Beza, Casaubon, Grotius, Wolf, Doddridge, Adam Clarke, and Barnes. 
To the three latter, in particular, I would direct the doubtful reader, for a very happy 
though brief exposition of the passage ; and with more pleasure do I quote such au- 
thority, because there is no other commentary accessible to common readers, that has 
any merit among the critical, on points of doubtful interpretation. Clarke also 
gives the phrase — " at home," as the just translation of the intermediate words, and 
condemns the distributive sense, by classic usages. The words which next follow — 
" partook of their food," — (com. trans., " did eat their bread,") — offer the best jus- 
tification of this simple and natural sense. The original word rp*$m\ (trophes,) trans- 
lated " meat," " food," which is here manifestly used in explanation of this action, 
can have no reference to any sacramental occasion, and must be applied to " victuals 
taken for nourishment" alone. The word fxere'sdixPavov (metelambanon) implies also 
far more than the common translation would lead the reader to suppose. Its true 
sense is — "partook,"— "shared with one another," and expresses the free and open 
manner in which they divided their substance. The word " unanxious" more fully ex- 
presses the sense of the subsequent term, than the common translation, " singleness? 
which is the literal meaning. (See Kuinoel in loc.) 

THE CURE OF THE CRIPPLE. 

In the course of these regular religious observances, about the 
same time, or soon after the events just recorded, Peter and John 
went up to the temple to pray, at three o'clock in the afternoon, 
the usual hour for the second public prayers. As they went in 
at the outer gate of the temple, which, being made of polished 
Corinthian brass, was for its splendor called the Beautiful, 
their attention was called to one of the objects of pity which 
were so common on those great days of assembly, about the 
common places of resort. A man, who, by universal testimony, 
had been a cripple from his birth, was lying in a helpless attitude 
at this public entrance, in order to excite the compassion of the 
crowds who were constantly passing into the temple, and were in 
that place so much under the influence of religious feeling as to 
be easily moved by pity to exercise so prominent a religious duty 
as charity to the distressed. This man seeing Peter and John 
passing in, asked alms of them in his usual way. They both in- 



160 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

stantly turned their eyes towards him, and looking earnestly on 
him, Peter said, " Look on us." The cripple, supposing from their 
manner that they were about to give something to him, accordingly 
yielded them his interested attention. Peter then said to him, 
" Silver and gold have I none, but I give thee what I have : in the 
name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, rise up and walk." As he 
said this, he took hold of the lame man and raised him ; and he 
at once was able to support himself erect. Leaping up in the con- 
sciousness of strength, he stood and walked with them into the 
temple, expressing thankfulness and joy as he went, both by mo- 
tions and words. The attention of the worshiping assembly in 
the great courts of the temple was at once directed to this strange 
circumstance ; for all who had passed in at the gate, recognized 
this vivacious companion of the two apostles as the man who had 
all his life been a cripple, without the power of voluntary locomo- 
tion ; and they were utterly amazed at his present altered condi- 
tion and actions. As the recovered cripple, leaning on Peter and 
John, still half doubting his new strength, accompanied them on to 
the porch of Solomon, the whole multitude ran after them thither, 
still in the greatest astonishment. All eyes were at once turned 
to the two wonderful men who had caused this miraculous change ; 
and the astonishment which this deed had inspired must have been 
mingled with awe and reverence. Here surely was an occasion 
to test the honesty and sincerity of these followers of Christ, when 
they saw the whole people thus unhesitatingly giving to them the 
divine honor of this miraculous cure. What an opportunity for 
a calculating ambition to secure power, favor, and renown ! Yet, 
with all these golden chances placed temptingly within their reach, 
they, so lately longing for the honors of an earthly dominion, now 
turned calmly and firmly to the people, utterly disclaiming the 
honor and glory of the deed, but rendering all the praise to their 
crucified Lord. Peter, ever ready with eloquent words, immedi- 
ately addressed the awe-struck throngs, who listened in silence to 
his inspired language ; and distinctly declared the merit of this 
action to belong not to him and his companion, but to " that same 
Jesus, whom they, but a short time before, had rejected and put to 
death as an impostor." He then went on to charge them boldly 
with the guilt of this murder ; and summing up the evidences and 
consequences of their crime, he called on them to repent, and yield 
to this slain and risen Jesus the honors due to the Messiah. It 
was his name which, through faith in his name, had made this 



peter's apostleship. 161 

lame man strong, and restored him to all his bodily energies, in 
the presence of them all. That name, too, would be equally pow- 
erful to save them through faith, if they would turn to him, — the 
prophet foretold by Moses, by Samuel, and all the prophets that fol- 
lowed them, — as the restorer and leader of Israel, and through 
whom, as was promised to Abraham, all the families of the earth 
should be blest. But first of all to them, the favored children of 
Abraham, did God send his prophet-son, to bless them in turning 
away every one of them from their iniquities. 

The beautiful gate. — The learned Lightfoot has brought much deep research to 
bear on this point, as to the position of this gate and the true meaning of its name ; 
yet he is obliged to announce the dubious result in the expressive words, " In bivio 
hie stamus," (" we here stand at a fork of the road") The main difficulty consists in 
the ambiguous character of the word translated " beautiful," in Greek, 'Qpaiav, Qio- 
raian,) which may have the sense of " splendid, beautiful," or, in better keeping 
with its root "£lpa, (hora,) " time," it may be made to mean the " gate of time," or 
the " gate of ages." Now, what favors the latter derivation and translation, is the fact, 
that there actually was, as appears from the Rabbinical writings, a gate called Hhul- 
dah, (n-6in,) probably derived from n'pn (JiheledK) "age," "time," " life," — from the Ara- 
bic root ^JLi- (khaladh,) " endure," " last;" so that it may mean " lasting," " perma- 
nent," " eternal," which would also be a just translation of the Greek word above 
given. There were two gates of this name, distinguished by the terms greater and small- 
er, both opening into the court of the Gentiles from the great southern porch or colon- 
nade, called the Royal colonnade. Through these, the common way from Jerusalem 
and from Zion led into the temple, and througn these would be the natural entrance of 
the apostles into it. This great royal porch, also, where such vast numbers were pass- 
ing, and which afforded a convenient shelter from the weather, would be a convenient 
place for a cripple to post himself in. (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. et Talm. in loc.) 

There was, however, a great gate, to which the epithet " beautiful" might with 
eminent justice be applied. This is thus described by Josephus, (Jew. War, book 
V. chap. 5. sec. 3.) " Of the gates, nine were overlaid with gold and silver, — * * * 
but there was one on the outside of the temple, made of Corinthian brass, which far 
outshone the plated and gilded ones." This is the gate to which the passage is com- 
monly supposed to refer, and which I have mentioned as the true one in the text, 
without feeling at all decided on the subject, however ; for I certainly do think the 
testimony favors the gate Hhuldah, and the primary sense of the word 'Qpaia seems 
to be best consulted by such a construction. 

The porch of Solomon. — Sroa EoAo^wj/ro?, (Stoa Solomontos.) This was the name 
commonly applied to the great eastern colonnade of the temple, which ran along on 
the top of the vast terrace which made the gigantic rampart of Mount Moriah, rising 
from the depth of six hundred feet out of the valley of the Kedron. (See note on 
page 110.) The Greek word oroa, (stoa,) com. trans, "porch," does not necessarily 
imply an entrance to a building, as is generally true of our modern porch, but was 
a general name for a " colonnade," which is a much better expression for its mean- 
ing, and would always convey a correct notion of it ; for its primary and universal 
idea is that of a row of columns running along the side of a building, and leaving 
a broad open space between them and the wall, often so wide as to make room for a 
vast assemblage of people beneath the ceiling of the architrave. That this was the 
case in this stoa, appears from Josephus's description, given in my note on page 110, 
sec. 1. The stoa might be so placed as to be perfectly inaccessible from without, and 
thus lose all claim to the name of porch, with the idea of an entrance-way. This 
was exactly the situation and construction of Solomon's stoa, which answers much 
better to our idea of a gallery, than of a. porch. (See Donnegan, sub voc.) 

It took the name of Solomon from the fact, that when the great temple of that mag- 
nificent king was burned and torn down by the Chaldeans, this eastern terrace, as 
originally constructed by him, was too vast, and too deeply based, to be easily made 
the subject of such a destroying visitation, and consequently was by necessity left a 
lasting monument of the strength and grandeur of the temple which had stood upon 



162 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

it. When the second temple was rebuilt, this vast terrace, of course, became again 
the great eastern foundation of the sacred pile, but received important additions to 
itself, being strengthened by higher and broader walls, and new accessions of mound- 
ed earth ; while over its long trampled and profaned pavement, now beautified and 
renewed with splendid Mosaic, rose the mighty range of gigantic snow-white mar- 
ble columns, which gave it the name and character of a stoa or colonnade, and filled 
the country for a vast distance with the glory of its pure brightness. (See note on 
page 111. See also Ldghtfoot, Disquisit. Chor. cap. vi. § 2.) Josephus further describes 
it, explaining the very name which Luke uses. "And this was a colonnade of the 
outer temple, standing over the verge of a deep valley, on walls four hundred cubits 
in highth, built of hewn stones perfectly white, — the length of each stone being twenty 
cubits, and the highth six. It was the work of Solomon, who first built the whole 
temple." (Jos. Ant. XX. ix. 7.) 

THE FIRST SEIZURE OF THE APOSTLES. 

While the apostles were thus occupied in speaking words of wis- 
dom to the attentive people, they were suddenly interrupted by the 
entrance of the guards of the temple, who, under the command 
of their captain, came up to the apostles, and seizing them in the 
midst of their discourse, dragged them away to prison, where they 
were shut up, for examination on the next day, before the civil 
and ecclesiastical court of the Jews. This act of violence was 
committed by order of the priests who had the care of the temple, 
more immediately instigated by the Sadducees, who were present 
with the priests and guards when the arrest was made. The 
reason why this sect, in general not active in persecuting Jesus 
and his followers, were now provoked to this act of unusual hos- 
tility, was, that the apostles were now preaching a doctrine di- 
rectly opposed to the main principles of Sadducism. The asser- 
tion that Jesus had actually risen from the dead, so boldly made 
by the apostles, must, if the people believed it, entirely overthrow 
their confidence in the Sadducees, who absolutely denied the ex- 
istence of a spirit, and the possibility of a resurrection of the dead. 
It was now evening, and the apostles being thus dragged away 
abruptly, in the midst of their discourse, the people were obliged 
to disperse for the night, without hearing all that the speakers had 
intended to say ; yet even the fragment of discourse which they 
had heard, was not without a mighty effect. So convincing and 
moving were these few words of Peter, and so satisfactory was the 
evidence of the miracle, that almost the whole multitude of hear- 
ers and beholders seems to have come over in a mass to the faith 
of Christ ; for converts to the astonishing number of five thousand 
are mentioned by the sacred historian, who all professed their be- 
lief in Jesus, as the resurrection and the life, and the healing. 

The guards of the temple, fyc. — This was the same set of men above described, as 
made up of the Levite porters and watchmen of the temple. (See note on page 134. 



PETER/S APOSTLESHIP. 163 

Also Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Acts iv. 1.— Rosenmuller, ibid, and Kuinoel.) But 
Hammond has made the mistake of supposing this to be a detachment of the Roman 
garrison. 

THEIR FIRST TRIAL. 

The next morning, the high court of the Jewish nation, having 
the absolute control of all religious matters, was called together to 
decide upon the fate of the apostles, and probably, also, of the lame 
man whom they had cured. This great court was the same whose 
members had, by unwearied exertions, succeeded a few weeks be- 
fore, in bringing about the death of Jesus, and were therefore little 
disposed to show mercy to any who were trying to perpetuate his 
name, or the innovations which he had attempted against the high 
authority of the ecclesiastical rulers of the nation. Of these, the 
principal were Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests, with John 
and Alexander, and many others, who were entitled to a place in 
the council, by relationship to the high priests. Besides these, 
there were the rulers and elders of the people, and the scribes, who 
had been so active in the condemnation of Jesus. These all 
having arrayed themselves for judgment, the apostles and their 
poor healed cripple were brought in before them? and sternly 
questioned, by what power and by what name they had done the 
thing for which they had been summoned before the court. They 
stood charged with having arrogated to themselves the high char- 
acter and office of teachers, and, what was worse, reformers of the 
national religion, — of that religion which had been, of old, re- 
ceived straight from God by the holy prophets, and which the 
wisdom of long-following ages had secured in sanctity and purity, 
by entrusting it to the watchful guardianship of the most learned 
and venerable of a hereditary order of priests and scholars. And 
who were they that now proposed to take into their hands the re- 
ligion given by Moses and the prophets, and to offer to the people 
a new dispensation ? Were they deep and critical scholars in the 
law, the prophets, the history of the faith, or the stored wisdom 
of the ancient teachers of the law ? No ; they were a set of rude, 
ill-taught men, who had left their honest but low employments in 
their miserable province, and had come down to Jerusalem with 
their Master, on the likely enterprise of overturning the established 
order of things in church and state, and erecting in its place an 
administration which should be managed by the Nazarene and his 
company of Galileans. In this seditious attempt their Master had 
been arrested and punished with death ; and they whose lives were 



164 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

spared by the mere clemency of their offended lords, were now so 
little grateful for this mercy, and so little awed by this example of 
justice, that they had been publicly haranguing the people in the 
temple, and imposing on them with a show of miracles, all with 
the view of raising again those disturbances which their Mas- 
ter had before excited, but too successfully, by the same means, 
until his death. In this light would the two apostles stand before 
their stern and angry judges, as soon as they were recognized as 
the followers of Jesus. And how did they maintain their ground 
before this awful tribunal ? Peter had, only a few weeks before, 
absolutely denied all connexion and acquaintance with Jesus, when 
questioned by the mere menials in attendence on his Master's trial. 
And on this solemn occasion, tenfold more appalling, did that once 
false disciple find in his present circumstances, consolations to 
raise him above his former weakness ? Peter was now changed ; 
and he stood up boldly before his overbearing foes, to meet their 
tyranny by a dauntless assertion of his rights and of the truth of 
what he had preached. Freshly indued with a courage from on 
high, and full of that divine influence so lately shed abroad, he 
and his modest yet firm companion replied to the haughty in- 
quiries of his judges, by naming as the source of their power, and 
as their sanction in their work, the venerated name of their cruci- 
fied Master. " Princes of the people and elders of Israel, if we are 
to-day called to account for this good deed which we have done 
to this poor man, and are to say in whose name this man has been 
cured, — be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that 
in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, whom you crucified, 
and whom God raised from the dead, this man now stands before 
you, made sound and strong. This crucified Jesus is the stone 
which, though rejected by you builders, has become the chief cor- 
ner stone ; and in no other name is there salvation, (or healing ;) 
for there is no other name given under heaven, among men, by 
which any can be saved," (or healed.) When the judges saw the 
free-spoken manner of Peter and John, observing that they were 
unlearned men, of the lower orders, they were surprised ; and no- 
ticing them more particularly, they recognized them as the imme- 
diate personal followers of Jesus, remembering now that they had 
often seen them in his company. This recognition made them 
the more desirous to put a stop to their miracles and preach- 
ing. Yet there stood the man with them, whom they had healed ; 
and with this palpable evidence before their eyes, how could the 



165 

members of the Sanhedrim justify themselves to the people, for 
any act of positive violence against these men ? These high dig- 
nitaries were a good deal perplexed, and sending the apostles out 
of the court, they deliberated one with another, and inquired — 
" What can we do with these men ? Foxvthere is a general im- 
pression among all who are now in Jerusalem, both citizens and 
strangers, that they have done a great miracle ; and we cannot dis- 
prove it. Still we cannot let these things go on so, nor suffer this 
heresy to spread any farther among the people ; and we will there- 
fore charge them threateningly to use the name of Jesus no more 
to the people." Having come to this conclusion, they summoned 
the prisoners once more into the court, and gave them a strict 
command, never to teach any more nor utter a word in the name 
of Jesus. But Peter and John, undismayed by the authority of 
their great judges, boldly avowed their unshaken resolution to pro- 
ceed as they had begun. " We appeal to you, to say if it is right 
in the sight of God to obey you rather than God. For we cannot 
but speak what we have seen and heard." The judges, being able 
to bring these stubborn heretics to no terms at all, after having 
threatened them still farther, were obliged to let them go unpun- 
ished, as they could not make out any plea against them, that 
would make it safe to injure them, while the popular voice was so 
loud in their favor, on account of the miracle. For the man 
whom they had so suddenly healed, being more than forty years 
old, and having been lame from his birth, no one could pretend to 
say that such a lameness could be cured by any sudden impression 
made on his imagination. 

Salvation, (or healing.)— The Greek word here in the original, Swt^i'o, (Soteria,) 
is entirely dubious in its meaning, conveying one or the other of these two ideas ac- 
cording to the sense of the connexion ; and here the general meaning of the passage 
is such, that either meaniDg is perfectly allowable, and equally appropriate to the 
context. This ambiguity in the substantive is caused by the same variety of mean- 
ing in the verb which is the root, Edw, (Sao,) whose primary idea admits of its appli- 
cation either to the act of saving from ruin £nd death, or of relieving any bodily evil, 
that is, of healing. In this latter sense it is frequently used in the New Testament, 
as in Matt. ix. 21, 22, com. trans, "made whole." Also, Mark v. 28, 34 : vi. 56 : x. 
52. In Luke vii. 50, and in viii. 48, the same expression occurs, both passages being 
exactly alike in Greek ; but the common translation has varied the interpretation in 
the two places, to suit the circumstances, — in the former " saved thee," and in the 
latter, " made thee whole." In this passage also, Acts iv. 12, the word is exactly the 
same as that used in verse 9, where the common translation gives "made whole." 
The close connexion therefore between these two verses would seem to require the 
same meaning in the word thus used, and hence I should feel justified in preferring 
this rendering ; but the general power of the verb makes it very probable that in this 
second use of it here, there was a sort of intentional equivoque in the writer and 
speaker, giving force to the expression, by the play on the meaning afforded by the 
present peculiar circumstances. 

23 



166 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



THEIR RENEWED ZEAL. 

The apostles, as soon as they were released from this unjust 
confinement, went directly to their own companions, and reported 
all that the high priests and elders had said to them. And when 
the disciples heard of the threats which these tyrannical hierarchs 
had laid on their persecuted brethren, with one mind they raised 
a voice to God in a prayer of unequaled beauty and power, in 
which they called upon the Lord, as the God who had made 
heaven, and earth, and sea, and all in them, to look down upon 
them, thus endangered by their devotion to his cause, and to give 
them all boldness of speech in preaching his word ; and to vindi- 
cate their authority still further, by stretching out his hand to 
heal, and by signs and miracles. No sooner had they uttered their 
prayer than they received new assurance of the help of God, and 
had new evidence of a divine influence. " The place where they 
were assembled was shaken, and they were all rilled again with 
the Holy Spirit, and spake the word of God with renewed bold- 
ness." This first attack upon them, by their persecutors, so far 
from dispiriting or disuniting them, gave them redoubled courage, 
and bound them together still with the ties of a common danger 
and a common helper. " All those who believed were of one 
heart and one soul," and were so perfectly devoted to each others' 
good, that " none of them said that any of the things which he 
possessed was his own, but held them as the common support of 
all." And in spite of the repeated denunciations of the Sadducees 
and the Sanhedrim, the apostles, with great power and effect, bore 
witness of the resurrection of their Lord ; and the result of their 
preaching was, that they were all in the highest favor with the 
people. Neither was any one of them suffered to want any com- 
fort or convenience of life ; for many that owned houses and lands 
at a distance, turned them into ready money by selling them, and 
brought the money thus obtained to the apostles, with whom they 
deposited it in trust, for distribution among the needy, according 
to their circumstances. This was done more particularly by the 
foreign Jews, many of whom were converted at the pentecost, 
when, being gathered from all parts, they heard for the first time 
of the Messiah, from the mouths of his apostles, and saw their 
words supported by such wonders. Among these was a native of 
Cyprus, by name Joseph, a Levite, who so distinguished himself 
by his labors of love among them, and gave such promise of ex- 



167 

cellence as a teacher of the new faith which he had adopted, that 
the apostles honored him with a new name, by which he was ever 
after known, instead of his previous one. They called him Bar- 
nabas, which means " the son of exhortation," no doubt referring 
to those talents which he afterwards displayed as an eminent and 
successful minister of the gospel. 

Raised a voice. — This is literal ; and can mean nothing more than the common 
modern expression, " unite in prayer," with which it is perfectly synonymous. The 
judicious Bloomfield (Annot. in Acts iv. 24) observes, " We cannot rationally sup- 
pose that this prefatory address was (as some conjecture) not pronounced ex-tempore, 
but a pre-compose.d form of prayer, since the words advert to circumstances not 
known until that very time ; as, for instance, the threatening^ of the Sanhedrim, 
(verse 29,) of which they had been but just then informed ; and the words 'aKovaravres 
'opoQvuaSov rjpav (pojvrjv will not allow us to imagine any interval between the report of 
Peter and John, and the prayer." Kuinoel's view is precisely the same. 

Were in the highest favor with the people. — Very different from the common transla- 
tion, "great grace was upon them all." But the Greek word, Xapi?, (Kharis,) like 
the Latin gratia, (in the Vulgate,) means primarily " favor:" and the only question 
is, whether it refers to the favor of God or of man. Beza, "Whitby, Doddridge, &c. 
prefer the former, but Kuinoel justly argues from a comparison of the parallel pas- 
sages, (ii. 47, and iv. 34,) that it refers to their increasing influence on the attention 
and regard of the people, which was indeed the great object of all their preaching 
and miracles. Grotius, Rosenmiiller, Bloomfield, and others, also support this view. 

Deposited in trust. — This is a free, but just version of etlOow napa rovs raja?, (etith- 
oun para tons podas,) Acts iv. 35, literally and faithfully rendered in the common 
translation by " laid at the feet ;" but this was an expression very common not only 
in Hebrew, but in Greek and Latin usage, for the idea of !' deposit in trust ;" as is 
shown by Rosenmuller's apt quotations from Cicero, " ante pedes praetoris in foro 
expensum est auri pondo centum," (pro Flac. c. 28,) and from Heliodorus, iravra ra 
lavTov riQivai napa rovs noSas 0aai\eojs. But Kuinoel seems not to think of these, and 
quotes it as a mere Hebraism. 

Barnabas, son of exhortation. — This is the translation of this name, which seems 
best authorized. A fuller account of it will be given in the life of Barnabas. 

ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA. 

The great praise and universal gratitude which followed Bar- 
nabas, for this noble and self-denying act of pure generosity, was 
soon after, the occasion of a most shameful piece of imposition, 
ending in an awful expression of divine vengeance. Led by the 
hope of cheaply winning the same praise and honor which Bar- 
nabas had acquired by his single-minded liberality, a man named 
Ananias, with the knowledge and aid of his wife Sapphira, having 
sold a piece of land, brought only a part of the price to the apos- 
tles, and deposited it in the general charity-fund, alleging at the 
same time, that this was the whole amount obtained for the land. 
But Peter, having reason to believe that this was only a part of 
the price, immediately questioned Ananias sternly on this point, 
charging him directly with the crime of lying to God. He re- 
marked to him that the land was certainly his own, and no one 
could question his right to do just as he pleased with that, or the 
money obtained for it ; since he was under no obligation to give it 



168 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

away to the poor of the church. But since he had of his own 
accord attempted to get a reputation for generosity, by a base and 
avaricious act of falsehood, he had incurred the wrath of an in- 
sulted God. No sooner had Ananias heard this awful denuncia- 
tion, than, struck with the vengeance he had brought on himself, 
he fell lifeless before them, and was carried out to the burial, by 
the attendents. His wife soon after coming in, not having heard 
of what had happened, boldly maintained her husband's assertion, 
and repeated the lie most distinctly to Peter. He then declared 
his knowledge of her guilt, and made known to her the fate of 
her husband, which she was doomed to share. The words had 
hardly left his lips, when they were confirmed by her instant death, 
and she was at once carried out and laid with her husband. The 
effect of these shocking events, on the minds of the members of 
the church generally, was very salutary ; exhibiting to them the 
awful consequences of such deliberate and hardened sin. 

Attendents. — The common English translation here gives the expression, "young 
men," which is the primary meaning of the Greek veaviaicoi, (neaniskoi,) and is quite 
unobjectionable ; but the connexion here seems to justify and require its secondary 
use in application to "servants," "attendents," &c. This interpretation has the au- 
thority of the iearned Mosheim, who considers the persons here mentioned, to have 
been regularly appointed officers, who performed the necessary duties about the as- 
semblies of the disciples, and executed all the commands of the apostles. He says, 
" unless you suppose these young men to have been of this sort, it is hard to under- 
stand why they alone instantly rose up and carried out the bodies of Ananias and his 
wife, and buried them. But if you suppose them to have been men discharging an 
official duty in the public assembly, you see a reason why, even without orders, they 
took that sad duty upon themselves. And that there were public servants of this sort 
in the first Christian church, no one certainly can doubt, who will imagine for him- 
self either its circumstances, or the form of the assemblies of that age. For instance, 
there were the places of meeting to be cleaned, — the seats and tables to be arranged, 
— the sacred books to be brought and carried away, — the dishes to be set out and 
cleared off, — in short, there were many things to be done which absolutely required 
particular men." (Mosheim de Reb. Christ, ante Cons. M. p. 114, b.) This passage 
is quoted by Kuinoel, and is so clear in its representation of the circumstances, as to 
justify me in translating it entire. 

THE INCREASING FAME OF THE APOSTLES 

The apostles, daily supported anew by fresh tokens of divine 
aid, went on in their labors among the people, encouraged by their 
increasing attention and favor. So deep was the impression of 
awe made by the late occurrence, that none of the rest of the 
church dared to mingle familiarly with the apostles, who now 
seemed to be indued with the power of calling down the vengeance 
of God at will, and appeared to be persons too high and awful for 
common men to be familiar with. Yet the number of the church 
members, both men and women, continued to enlarge, and the at- 
tendence of the people to increase, so that there was no place 



169 

which would accommodate the vast crowd of hearers and behold- 
ers, except the great porch of Solomon, already described, where 
the apostles daily met the church and the people, to teach and 
strengthen them, and to work such cures as their Master had 
so often wrought. So high was the reputation of the apostles, 
and so numerous were those who came to solicit the favor of their 
healing power, for themselves or friends, that all could not get ac- 
cess to them, even in the vast court of the temple which they occu- 
pied, insomuch that they brought the sick into the streets, and laid 
them on beds and couches, along the path which the apostles were 
expected to pass, that at least the shadow of Peter, passing by, 
might overshadow some of them. Nor was this wonderful fame 
and admiration confined to Jerusalem ; for as the news was spread 
abroad by the pilgrims returning from the pentecost, " there came 
also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing 
sick folks and those who were affected by evil spirits, and they 
were healed, every one." 

Mingle familiarly with them. — Com. trans. " join himself to them," which conveys 
a totally erroneous idea, since all their efforts were given to this end, of making as 
many as possible " join themselves to them." The context (verse 14) shows that their 
numbers were largely increased by such additions. " Yet no one of the common 
members (ol Xonroi) dared mingle familiarly («oAAdcr0ai) with them ; but the people 
held them in great reverence." Acts v. 13. 

Met the church and people. — This distinction may not seem very obvious in a com- 
mon reading of the Acts, but in v. 11, it is very clearly drawn. "Great fear was 
upon the whole church and on all the hearers of these things." And throughout the 
chapter, a nice discrimination is made between b >a<5<r, (ho laos,) " the people," or " the 
congregation," and h iKicfojaia, (he ekklesia,) " the church." See Kuinoel in v. 13, 14. 

The shadow of Peter. — This is one of a vast number of passages which show the 
high and perfectly commanding pre-eminence of this apostolic chief. The people 
evidently considered Peter as concentrating all the divine and miraculous power in 
his own person, and had no idea at all of obtaining benefit from any thing that the 
minor apostles could do. In him, alone, they saw the manifestations of divine power 
and authority ; — he spoke, and preached, and healed, and judged, and doomed, while 
the rest had nothing to do but assent and aid. Peter, then, was the great pastor of 
the church, and it is every way desirable that over-zealous Protestants would find 
some better reason for opposing so palpable a fact, than simply that Papists support 
it. A Protestant, zealous against the assumptions of the church of Rome, yet honest 
and honorable in that opposition, should scorn and cast off the base and vain support 
that so many seek in the denial of the divinely-appointed pre-eminence of the noble 
Peter, — a pre-eminence, to my eye, palpably marked in almost every passage of 
the gospels and of the Acts where the apostles are mentioned. The spirit which 
thus perverts the obvious meaning of particular passages and the general tenor of 
the whole New Testament, for the sake of carrying a point against the Romanists, is 
not the original spirit of the great Reformers who fought the first and best battles 
against papal supremacy; they knew better, and had better aids. It is a more mo- 
dern spirit, springing from an ignorance of the true grounds of the great Protestant 
defense ; nor till this offspring of ignorance is displaced by the spirit of truth, will 
the Protestant controversy go on as the first Reformers so triumphantly began it. 
And if, of necessity, the Pope's supremacy over all Christian churches follows from 
Peter's superiority over the other apostles, even such an inference is to be preferred 
before the sacrifice of a common-sense rule of interpretation. 
" Non tali auxilio, nee defensoribus istis 
Tempus eget." — 



170 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

THEIR SECOND SEIZURE AND TRIAL. 

The triumphant progress of the new sect, however, was not 
unnoticed by those who had already taken so decided a stand 
against it. The Sadducees, who had so lately come out against 
them, were not yet disposed to leave the apostles to enjoy their 
boldness with impunity. The high priest Annas, who had always 
been the determined enemy of Christ, belonging to the Sadducean 
sect, was easily led to employ all his authority with his brethren, 
against the apostles. He at last, provoked beyond endurance at 
their steady and unflinching contempt of the repeated solemn in- 
junction of the Sanhedrim, whose president and agent he was, rose 
up in all his anger and power, and, backed by his friends, seized 
the apostles and put them into the common jail, as inveterate dis- 
turbers of the peace of the city, and of the religious order of the 
temple. This commitment was intended to be merely temporary, 
and was to last only until a convenient time could be found for 
bringing them to trial, when the crowd of strangers should have 
retired from the city to their homes, and the excitement attendent 
on the preaching and miracles of the apostles should have sub- 
sided, so that the ordinary course of law might go on safely, even 
against these popular favorites, and they might be brought at last 
to the same fate as their Master. After the achievment of this 
project, " a consummation most devoutly to be wished" by every 
friend of the established order of things, the sect which was now 
making such rapid advances would fall powerless and lifeless, when 
its great heads were thus quietly lopped off. This seems to have 
been their well-arranged plan, — but it was destined to be spoiled 
in a way unlooked for ; and this first step in it was to be made the 
means of a new triumph to the persecuted subjects of it. That 
very night the prison doors were opened by a messenger of God, 
by whom the apostles were brought out of their confinement, and 
told — " Go, stand and speak in the temple, to the people, all the 
words of this life." According to this divine command, they went 
into the temple and taught, early in the morning, probably before 
their luxurious tyrants had left their lazy pillows. While the 
apostles were thus coolly following their daily labors of mercy 
in the temple, the high priest and his train called the council 
together, and the whole senate of all the children of Israel, and 
having deliberately arrayed themselves in the forms of law, they 
ordered the imprisoned heretics to be brought forthwith into the 



peter's apostleship. 171 

awful presence of this grand council and senate of the Jewish na- 
tion and faith. The officers, of course, as in duty bound, went to 
execute the order, but soon returned to report the important defi- 
ciency of the persons most needed to complete the solemn prepa- 
rations for the trial. Their report was simply — " The prison truly 
we found shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without, 
before the doors ; but when we had opened, we found no man 
within." Here was a non-plus, indeed ; all proceedings were 
brought to a stand at once ; and " when the high priest and the 
chief officer of the temple, and the chief priests heard these things, 
they doubted of them, whereunto they would grow." But these 
dignitaries were not long left to perplex themselves about what had 
become of their prisoners ; for some sycophant, rejoicing in such 
an opportunity to serve the powers that were, came running to 
tell them, " Behold ! the men whom ye put in prison are stand- 
ing in the temple, and teaching the people." This very simple 
but valuable piece of information relieved the grave judges very 
happily from their unfortunate quandary; and without further 
delay, a detachment of officers was sent to bring these unac- 
countable runaways to account. But as it appeared that the crim- 
inals were now in the midst of a vast assemblage of their friends, 
who were too perfectly devoted to them to suffer them to receive 
any violence, it was agreed to manage the thing as quietly and 
easily as might be, and to coax them away, if possible, to the tri- 
bunal. To procure the still and effectual performance of this order, 
the captain of the temple himself went with the officers, and qui- 
etly drew the apostles away, with their own consent ; for the min- 
ions of the law knew perfectly well that the least violence to these 
righteous men, would insure to those who attempted it, broken 
heads and bones, from the justly provoked people, whose indigna- 
tion would soon make the very stones to rise in mutiny for the de- 
fense of their beloved teachers and benefactors. The apostles 
themselves, however, showed no unwillingness whatever to appear 
before their bitter persecutors again ; and presented themselves ac- 
cordingly, with bold unflinching fronts, before the bar of the San- 
hedrim. When they were fairly set before the council, the high 
priest, turning his lately perplexed face into a look of austere dig- 
nity, asked them, " Did we not particularly charge you, that you 
should not teach in his name % And now, indeed, in open con- 
tempt of our authority, you have filled all Jerusalem with your 
doctrine, and mean to bring this man's blood upon us 1 n They, 



172 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the high priest and his supporters, had, at no small pains and 
trouble, effected the death of Jesus, and had naturally hoped that 
there would be an end of him ; but here, now, were his disciples 
constantly using his name to the excitable populace, in their daily 
teachings, thus keeping alive the memory of these painful inci- 
dents which it was so desirable to forget, and slowly plotting the 
means of avenging upon the Sanhedrim the death of their Master. 
To this sort of address, Peter, and all the other apostles, who now 
shared the fate of their two distinguished friends, replied, even as 
had been said on the previous summons, " We ought to obey God 
rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom 
you slew and hanged on a tree : him now has God uplifted to sit 
beside his own right hand, to be a Prince and a Savior, to give to 
Israel a change of heart and views, and remission of sins. And 
we are his witnesses of these things ; and what is far more, so also 
is the Holy Spirit, which God has given to those who obey him, 
as the reward and the sign of their obedience." This bold and 
solemn speech, breathing nothing but resistence against all hin- 
drances, and steady persistence in their course, — and denouncing, 
too, as murderers, the judges, while it exalted their victim to ho- 
nors the highest in the universe, was not at all calculated to con- 
ciliate the friendly regard of the hearers of it, but roused them to 
the most violent and deadly hate. Deeply wounded and insulted 
as they were, they determined to try remonstrance no longer ; but 
in spite of the danger of popular ferment, to silence these audacious 
bravers of their authority, in death. While they were on the 
point of pronouncing this cruel decision, the proceedings were 
stayed by Gamaliel, a man of vast learning and influence, an emi- 
nent Pharisee of great popularity, and beyond all the men of that 
age, in knowledge of the law of Moses and of Hebrew literature. 
This great man, rising up in the midst of their wrathful resolu- 
tions, moved to suspend the decision for a few minutes, and to 
withdraw the prisoners from the bar, until the court could form 
their opinions by deliberating with more freedom than they could in 
the presence of the subjects of the trial. As soon as the apostles 
were out of the court, Gamaliel addressed the council, prompted 
by a noble humanity, as well as by a deep knowledge of human 
nature, and acting in accordance also, with the general principles 
of the Pharisees, who were very averse to cruelty and bloodshed, 
and were generally disposed to punish even criminals in the mild- 
est ways. Possibly, too, he might have been affected by some 



173 

jealousy of the forwardness of the rival sect. His words were 
these : — " Men of Israel ! take care what you do to these men. 
For you know that not long ago rose up Theudas, boasting him- 
self to be somebody, and gathered a gang about him, to the num- 
ber of four hundred. But as soon as the attention of our Roman 
masters was drawn to his outrageous doings, they put him en- 
tirely down at once, killing him and breaking up his band, by 
slaughter and banishment ; so that without any trouble or exertion 
on our part, all this sedition was brought to nought. And when, 
after him, Judas the Galilean raised a great party about him, in 
the days of the taxing, this rebellion against the government met 
with the same inevitable fate, from the resistless soldiery of Rome ; 
and all this was done without any need of interference from us. 
And now, with these remarkable instances in view, I warn you to 
let these men alone, and leave them to determine their fate by their 
own future conduct. For if, in all their active efforts of seeming 
benevolence, they have been prompted by any base ambition to 
head a faction, which may raise them to the supreme power in 
religious and political affairs, and by a revengeful wish to punish 
those concerned in the death of their Master ; — if, in short, their 
plan or their work is a mere contrivance of men, it will come to 
nought of itself, without your interference, as did the two misera- 
ble riots which I have just mentioned. But if, inspired by a holier 
principle of action, they are laboring with pure love of their con- 
verts ; if all these wonderful cures which you consider mere tricks 
and impostures, shall prove to be true miracles, wrought by the 
hand of God, and if their plan be of Him, — you cannot overthrow 
it ; and do you look to it, sirs, that you do not find yourselves at 
last fighting against God." This noble and sensible speech, aided 
by the high rank and great weight of character which belonged 
to the speaker, instantly hushed all the lately outrageous proposals 
which had been made against the prisoners. If there were any 
in the council who did not feel satisfied with his reasoning, they 
were wise enough to acquiesce, with at least the appearance of 
content. They knew too well, that Gamaliel, supported by his 
unbounded popularity with the whole nation, and his eminently 
exalted character for justice and virtue, was abundantly able to 
put down every appearance of opposition, and set the apostles free, 
in spite of high priest and Sadducees. Adopting his resolution, 
therefore, they called in the apostles, and having vented their paltry 
malice by beating them, and having exposed themselves to new 

24 



174 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

contempt by repeating their oft-despised command, that the apos- 
tles should not speak in the name of Jesus, they let them go, — 
being fully assured that the first use the apostles would make of 
their freedom would be to break this idle injunction. For they 
went out of the judgment-hall, rejoicing that they were honored 
by suffering this shameful treatment in their Master's name. They 
now recalled to mind his early words of encouragement, which he 
had given them in a wise determination to prepare them for evils 
of which they had then so little notion. The passage from the 
sermon on the mount was particularly appropriate to their present 
circumstances. " Blessed are they who are persecuted for right- 
eousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are 
ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all 
manner of evil against you falsely, for my name's sake. Rejoice 
and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in heaven ; for so 
persecuted they the prophets who were before you." Comforted 
by such words as these, they returned to their labors as before ; 
and daily, in the temple, and moreover in private houses, ceased 
not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ, in the very face of the 
express prohibition of their thwarted persecutors. 

Messenger. — This is a fair and literal interpretation of ayyckos, (angelos,) and one 
justifiable in every place where it occurs in the Bible. Wherever it is applied to a 
supernatural being sent from God, the connexion will abundantly explain the term, 
without rendering it by a different word. Thus I have chosen to do, and to leave 
each reader to judge for himself, from the other attendent circumstances, of the cha- 
racter of the messenger. See Kuinoel in loc. 

All the words of this life. — I here follow the common translation, though Kuinoel 
and most interpreters consider this as a hypallage, and transpose it into " all these 
words of life." But it does not seem necessary to take such a liberty with the expres- 
sion, since the common version conveys a clear idea. " The words of this life" evi- 
dently can mean only the words of that life which they had before preached, in ac- 
cordance with their commission ; that is, of life from the dead, as manifested in the 
resurrection of Jesus, which was in itself the pledge and promise of life and bliss 
eternal, to all who should hear and believe these " words." This view is supported 
by Storr, and a similar one is advanced by Rosenmuller, in preference to any hypal- 
lage. 

Deeply wounded. — In the Greek, Sienpiovro, (dieprionto,) from tiarrpiw, " to saw 
through ;" in the passive, of course, " to be sawn through," or figuratively, " deeply 
wounded in the moral feelings." This is the com. trans. " cut to the heart," which 
I have adopted, with such a variation of the words as will assimilate it most nearly 
to common modern forms of expression. But Kuinoel prefers the peculiar force of 
the middle voice, (where this word can be made, owing to the identity of the imp. 
tenses of the two voices,) given by Hesychius, " to gnash the teeth," doubtless taken 
from the similarity of sound between "sawing," and "grating the teeth." This 
sense being also highly appropriate here to men in a rage, makes the passage per- 
fectly ambiguous, and accordingly great authorities divide on the point. In such 
cases, it seems to me perfectly fair to consider the phrase as originally intended for 
an equivoque. Luke w r as Grecian enough, doubtless, to know the two meanings of 
this form, and must have been very careless if he did not think of them as he wrote it 
down ; but either meaning is powerfully expressive of the idea here, and why should 
he reject or explain it 7 It is rather an advantage and a charm than otherwise, in a 
language, to possess this ambiguity, making occasionally a richly expressive play of 



175 

meanings. It seems, however, more in accordance with Luke's ordinary expressions, 
to prefer the passive sense, as in Acts vii. 54, raTs xapSiais (" to their hearts"; is added 
there, of course requiring the passive. For similar forms of expression, see Luke 
ii. 35 : Acts ii. 37.— Consult Bretschneider in loc. In favor of the passive sense, see 
Bloomfield, Rosenmuller, Wolf, Hammond, and Gataker. On the middle sense, 
Kuinoel, Beza, and Wetstein. 

Gamaliel.— A full account of this venerable sage will be given in the beginning of 
the life of Paul. 

In the temple and in private houses. — Acts v. 42. In the Greek, k<it oIkov, (kaf oikon,") 
the same expression as in ii. 46, alluded to in my note on pages 158, 159. Here too, 
occurs precisely the same connexion with h rw lspa>, {en to hiero,) with the same sense 
of opposition in place, there alluded to. The indefinite sense, then, rather than the 
distributive, is proper here as there, showing that they preached and taught not only 
in their great place of assembly, under the eastern colonnade of the temple, (v. 12,) 
but also in private houses, that is, at their house, or those of their friends. The expres- 
sion " from house to house," however, is much less objectionable here, because in this 
passage it can give only an indefinite idea of place, without any particular idea of 
rotation ; but in the other passage, in connexion with " the taking of food," it makes 
an erroneous impression of their mode of life, which the text is meant to describe. 

THE APPOINTMENT OF DEACONS. 

The successful progress of their labors had now gathered around 
them a great church, numbering among its members a vast throng 
both of Hebrew and of foreign Jews. The apostles being devoted 
wholly to their high duties of prayer and preaching, were unable 
to superintend particularly the daily distribution of the means of 
support to the needy, out of the charity-fund which had been ga- 
thered from the generous contributions of the wealthy members of 
the church. Among the foreign Jews who had joined the frater- 
nity of the disciples, were many of those who, by education, lan- 
guage, and manners, though not by race or religion, were Greeks. 
These, with the proselytes, being fewer than those who adhered 
to the genuine manners and language of Palestine, had compara- 
tively little weight in the administration of the affairs of the church, 
and had no hand in the distribution to the church poor. Being 
a minority, and being moreover looked on with invidious eyes by 
the genuine Hebrews, as a sort of half renegades, they were over- 
looked and put back, in the daily ministration to the needy ; and 
to such a degree, that even the helpless widows among them were 
absolutely suffering through this neglect. The natural conse- 
quence was that murmurs and open complaints arose among them, 
at this shameful and unbrotherly partiality. As soon as the report 
of the difficulty reached the ears of the twelve, they immediately 
called a full church-meeting, and laid the matter before it in these 
words : — " It is not proper that we should leave the preaching of 
the word of God, to wait on tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye 
out among you seven reputable men, full of a holy spirit and of 
wisdom, whom we may intrust with this business ; while we con- 



176 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tinue to give our time up wholly to prayer and the ministry of the 
word." This wise plan pleased all parties, and the church pro- 
ceeded to elect the proper persons for the charge. To soothe the 
feelings of the Hellenists, the whole seven were chosen from their 
number, as the names (which are all Greek) fully show. This 
makes it probable that there were already persons appointed from 
among the Hebrews, who had administered these charities from 
the beginning, and whose partial management of these matters 
had given offense to those whom they slighted. The seven Hel- 
lenists now chosen to this office, were Stephen, resplendent in 
spiritual and intellectual endowments ; Philip, also highly distin- 
guished afterwards by his successful preaching ; Prochorus, Nica- 
nor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch ; by 
which last circumstance, (as well as by the case of Barnabas,) is 
shown the fact that some Hellenist converts, from a distance, had 
settled at Jerusalem, and permanently joined the followers of 
Christ. These seven being formally elected by the church, were 
brought in before the apostles, for approval and confirmation. And 
after they had prayed, they laid their hands on them, in token of 
imparting to them the blessing and the power of that divine influence 
which had inspired its previous possessors to deeds so energetic 
and triumphant. The efficiency of this prayer and benediction, 
in calling down divine grace on the heads thus touched by the 
hands of the apostles, was afterwards most remarkably demon- 
strated in the case of two of the seven, and in the case of the first 
of them, almost immediately. 

Greeks. — The original word here is not "EXX*}^?, {Hellenes,') but 'EAX^rorou, (Hel- 
lenistai,) which means not Grecians, but Grecizers ; that is, those who imitated Gre- 
cian language or customs. 

Genuine Hebrews. — By these are meant those who used the Hebrew language still 
in their synagogues, as the only sacred tongue, and looked with much scorn on the 
Hellenists, that is, those foreign Jews, who, from birth or residence in other lands, 
had learned the Greek as their sole language in common life, and were thus obliged 
to use the Greek translation, in order to understand the scriptures. This matter will 
have a fuller discussion in another place. Lightfoot has brought a most amazing 
quantity of learned and valuable illustration of this difference, from Talmudic liter- 
ature. (Hor. Heb. et Talm. in Act. vi. 1.) 

All Hellenists. — This is the opinion of many eminent commentators, — Beza, Sal- 
masius, Piscator, Camerarius. (See Poole's Synopsis.) 

Christ's first martyr. 

Stephen, after thus being set apart for the service of the church, 

though faithfully discharging the peculiar duties to which he was 

called, did not confine his labors to the mere administration of the 

public charities. The word of God had now so spread, under 



peter's apostleship. 177 

the ministry of the apostles, that the number of the disciples in 
Jerusalem was greatly enlarged, and that not merely from the 
lower and ignorant orders ; but a great number of the priests, 
who, in their daily service in the temple, had been frequently un- 
intentional hearers of the word preached in its courts, now pro- 
fessed themselves the submissive friends of' the new faith. This 
remarkable increase excited public attention more and more, and 
required redoubled exertions to meet the increasing call for in- 
struction. Stephen, therefore, immediately entered boldly and 
heartily on this good work ; and, inspired by a pure faith, and 
the confidence of help from above, he wrought among the people 
such miracles as had hitherto followed only the ministry of the 
apostles. The bold actions of this new champion did not fail to 
excite the wrath of the enemies of the cause of Christ ; but as 
the late decision of the Sanhedrim had been against any further 
immediate resort to violent measures, his opponents confined them- 
selves to the forms of verbal debate for a while. As Stephen was 
one of those Jews who had adopted the Greek language and ha- 
bits, and probably directed his labors more particularly to that 
class of persons, he soon became peculiarly obnoxious to those 
Hellenist Jews who still held out against the new doctrine. Of 
the numerous congregations of foreign Jews that filled Jerusalem, 
five in particular are mentioned as distinguishing themselves by 
this opposition, — that of the freedmen, or captive Jews once slaves 
in Rome, and their descendents, — that of the Cyrenians, — of the 
Alexandrians, — the Cilicians, and the Asians. Some of the more 
zealous in all these congregations came out to meet Stephen in 
debate, with the polished points of Grecian logic, which their ac- 
quaintance with that language enabled them to use against him. 
But not all the combined powers of sacred and profane literature 
availed any thing against their learned and inspired opponent. 
Prepared beforehand, thoroughly, in all sorts of wisdom, and 
borne on resistlessly, moreover, by that divine influence whose 
movements they could see but could not understand, he foiled 
them completely at all their own weapons, and exposed them, in 
their low bigotry and stupidity, baffled and silenced by his single 
voice. But among all the refinements and elegances with which 
their classical knowledge had made them acquainted, they had 
failed to attain that noblest point of the rhetorical art, which is — 
to bear a fair defeat in open debate, gracefully. These low-minded, 
half-renegade bigots, burning with brutal rage for this defeat, which 






178 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

their base behavior made more disgraceful, determined to find a 
means of punishing him, which no logic or rhetoric could resist. 
They found men bad enough for their vile purposes, and instructed 
them to testify- that they had heard him speak blasphemous words 
against Moses and against God. On the strength of this heinous 
charge, they made out to rouse some of the people, as well as the 
elders and the scribes, to a similar hostile feeling ; and coming 
upon him with a throng of these, they seized him and dragged 
him away to the Sanhedrim, to undergo the form of a trial. They 
then brought forward their perjured witnesses, who testified only 
in vague terms of abuse : — " This man ceases not to speak blasphe- 
mous words against this holy place and the law. For we have 
heard him say that this Jesus, the Nazarene, will destroy this 
place, and will do away with the customs which Moses delivered 
to us." This was, after all, a kind of accusation which brought 
him more particularly under the invidious notice of the Pharisees, 
whose leader had lately so decidedly befriended the apostles ; for 
that sect guarded with the most jealous care all the minute details 
of their religion, and were ever ready to punish, as a traitor to the 
national faith and honor, any one who spoke slightingly, or even 
doubtingly, of the perpetuity of the law of Moses, and its hallow- 
ed shrine. Perhaps there was no one of all the sayings of Jesus 
himself, which had given deeper offense than his remark about de- 
stroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days, which his silly 
hearers took up seriously, and construed into a serious, blasphe- 
mous insult of the chief glory of the Jewish name, and bore it in 
mind so bitterly, as to throw it back on him, in his last agonies 
on the cross. Such a saying, therefore, when laid to the charge 
of Stephen, could not but rouse the worst feelings against him, in 
the hearts of all his judges. But he, calm and undisturbed amid 
the terrors of this trial, as he had been in the fury of the dispute, 
bore such an aspect of composure, that all who sat in the council 
were struck with his angelic look. The high priest, however, 
having heard the accusation, solemnly called on the prisoner to 
say " whether these things were so." Stephen then, with a de- 
termination to meet the charge by a complete exhibition of his 
views of the character and objects of the Jewish faith, ran over 
the general history of its rise and progress, and of the opinions 
which its founders and upholders had expressed concerning the 
importance and the perpetuity of those types and forms, and of the 
glorious temple which was their chief seat, when compared with 



179 

the revelation to be expected through the prophet promised to 
them by God and foretold by Moses. Warming as he went on, he 
quoted the poetical words of Isaiah, on the dwelling-place of the 
Almighty, as not being confined to the narrow bounds of the build- 
ing which was to them an object of such idolatrous reverence as 
the sole place of Jehovah's abode, but as being high in the heavens, 
whence his power and love spread their boundless grasp over sea 
and land, and all nations that dwelt beneath his throne. As the 
words of the prophet of the fire-touched lips rolled forth in the voice 
of Stephen, they kindled his soul into an ecstacy of holy wrath ; 
and in open scorn of their mean cruelty, he broke away from the 
plan of his discourse, bursting out into burning expressions of re- 
proach and denunciation, which carried their rage beyond all 
bounds of reason. Conscious of their physical power to avenge 
the insult, the mob instantly rose up, and hurried him away from 
the court, without regard to the forms of law ; and taking him 
without the city, they stoned him to death, while he invoked on 
them, not the wrath, but the mercy of their common God. In 
such prayers, gloriously crowning such labors and sufferings, he 
fell asleep, commending his spirit to the hands of that Lord and 
Savior, whom it was his exalted honor to follow, first of all, 
through the bitter agonies of a bloody death. 

The freedmen. — This is the proper translation of the word AifieprTvoi, (Libertinoi,) 
— Latin, Libertini, which the English translation expresses by the word. — Libertines, — 
a very absurd term, and very apt to mislead a common reader. Some (as Drusius 
and Casaubon) have supposed that it might be the proper name of a nation in north- 
ern Africa; but the general decision of critics, and the manifest probabilities, are 
against such a notion. The persons thus named in the Acts were, doubtless, Jews 
who had been slaves in Rome, and being freed, had returned to Jerusalem ; or they 
were Gentile freed slaves who had been converted to Judaism, and thus came under 
the denomination of Libertini, or freedmen. (See Lightfoot and Poole for illustra- 
tions of the character of these foreign synagogues.) 

THE PERSECUTION." 

Among the nameless herd of Stephen's murderers and dispu- 
tants, there was one only whose name has been preserved from 
the impenetrable oblivion which hides their infamy. And that 
name now is brought to the mind of every Christian reader, with- 
out one emotion of indignation or contempt, for its connexion with 
this bloody murder. That man is now known to hundreds of 
millions, and has been for centuries known to millions of millions, 
as a bright leader of the hosts of the ransomed, and the faithful 
martyr who sealed with his blood the witness which this proto- 
martyr bore beneath the messengers of death to which his voice 



180 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

had doomed him. In the synagogue of the Cilicians, which was 
so active in the attack on Stephen, was a young man, who was 
not behind the oldest and fiercest, in the steady, unrelenting hate 
which he bore to this devouring heresy. He gave his voice amid 
the clamors of the mob, to swell the cry for the death of the he- 
retic ; and when the stout murderers hurled the deadly missiles 
on the martyr's naked head, it was he who took charge of the loose 
garments which they had thrown off, that they might use their 
limbs with greater freedom. Neither the sight of the saintly mar- 
tyr, kneeling unresistingly to meet his bloody death, nor the sound 
of his voice, rising in the broken tones of the death-agony in 
prayer for his murderers, could move the deep hate of this young 
zealot, to the least relenting ; but the whole scene only led him to 
follow this example of merciless persecution, which he here viewed 
with such deep delight. Abundant opportunities for the exercise 
of this persecuting spirit soon occurred. In connexion with the 
charge against Stephen, which, however unfounded, brought him 
to this illegal death, there was a general and systematic disturb- 
ance raised by the same persons, against the church in Jerusalem ; 
more particularly directed, as it would seem, against the Hellenist 
members, who were involved, by general suspicion, in the same 
crime for which Stephen, their eminent brother, had suffered. Saul 
now distinguished himself at once above all others, by the active 
share which he took in this persecution. Raging against the 
faithful companions of the martyred Stephen, he, with the most 
inquisitorial zeal, sought them out, even in their own quiet dwell- 
ings, and violating the sanctity of home, he dragged out the in- 
mates to prison, visiting even on helpless women the crime of 
believing as their consciences prompted, — and without regard to 
delicacy or decency, shutting them up in the public dungeons. As 
soon as the storm began to burst on the new converts, those who 
were in any special danger of attack very properly sought safety in 
flight from the city, in accordance with the wise and merciful in- 
junction laid upon the apostles by their Lord, when he first sent 
them forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,-—" "When they perse- 
cute you in one city, flee into another." The consequences of this 
dispersion, however, were such as to turn the foolish rage of the 
persecutors to the solid advantage of the cause of Christ, and to 
show in what a variety of ways God can cause the wrath of man 
to praise him. For all those who were thus driven out of their 
peaceful homes, became missionaries of the word of truth, among 



181 

the people of the various cities and countries through which they 
were scattered. All those of whose wanderings we have any ac- 
count, seem to have journeyed northward and north-westward ; 
probably all of them foreign Jews, who naturally returned home 
when driven out of Jerusalem. Some of these went, in this way, 
to the Phoenician coast, to Antioch, and to Cyprus, all laboring to 
extend the knowledge of that truth for which they were willing 
sufferers. But of all those who went forth on this forced mission, 
none appear to have been more successful than Philip, who stood 
next to the martyred Stephen on the list of the seven Hellenist 
servants of the church, and who appears to have been second not 
even to his great fellow-servant in ability and energy. His home 
was in Caesarea, on the sea-coast ; but he had higher objects than 
merely to take refuge in his own domestic circle ; for instead of 
thus indulging his feelings of natural affection, he also turned his 
course northward, and made his first sojourn in the city of Sa- 
maria, where he immediately began to preach Christ to them, as 
the common Messiah, so long desired by Samaritans as well as 
Jews. Here, the people being ruled by no tyrannical sectaries, 
like the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the various orders of eccle- 
siastical power in Jerusalem, were left entirely to follow the im- 
pulse of their better feelings towards the truth, without the fear 
of any inquisition into their movements. Under these happy cir- 
cumstances of religious freedom, they all with one accord gave 
heed to the preaching of Philip, hearing and seeing the wonderful 
works of kindness which he did. For foul spirits, which possess- 
ing many sufferers, had long wasted their bodies and deranged 
their minds, now at the word of this preacher of Christ, came out 
of many of them, crying with a loud voice in attestation of the 
irresistible power which had overcome them. Many also that 
were affected with palsies and that were lame, were healed in the 
same miraculous manner; so that, in consequence of this removal 
of so many bodily and spiritual evils, there was great joy in the 
city, at the arrival of this messenger of mercy. But before the 
coming of Philip, the people of Samaria had been the subjects of 
arts of a somewhat different kind, from a man who could claim 
for his works none of the holy character of disinterested humanity, 
which belonged to those of the preacher of Christ. This was 
one Simon, a man who, by the use of some magical tricks, had so 
imposed upon the simple-minded citizens, that they were profoundly 
impressed with the notion, which he was anxious to make them 

25 



182 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

believe, namely, that he was a great man. To him they all, both 
young and old, paid the deepest reverence, in consequence of the 
triumphant ability displayed by him in the arts of sorcery ; and so 
low were their notions of the nature of miraculous agency, that 
they concluded that the tricks which he played were tokens of 
divine interposition in his favor, and universally allowed that he 
was himself a personification of the mighty power of God. But 
when Philip came among them, and exhibited the genuine work- 
ings of the holy spirit of God, they immediately saw how much 
they had been mistaken in their previous estimate of its operations ; 
and changed their degraded notions, for a more just appreciation of 
its character. On hearing the word of truth so fully revealed 
and supported, they believed in the new view which he gave them 
of the kingdom of God on earth, and in the name of Jesus Christ ; 
and were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself, 
overwhelmed with the evidences of a higher power than any that 
he knew, confessed the fallacy of his own tricks, and submissively 
owned the power of God as manifested in the words and deeds of 
Philip, with whom he now remained, a humble and wondering 
observer of the miracles and signs wrought by him. 

THE VISIT TO SAMARIA. 

In the meantime, the apostles had remained at Jerusalem, ap- 
parently not directly affected by the persecution against Stephen 
and his friends, or at least, not disturbed by it so as to be prevent- 
ed from remaining at their original post, in the discharge of duty. 
For, a true regard for the instructions long ago given them by 
their Master, would have required them to leave Jerusalem, if the 
opposition to their preaching became so settled and extensive as 
to prevent them from advancing the cause of Christ there, more 
rapidly than they might in other places. The spirit with which 
they had been taught to meet tyrannical opposition, was not one 
of idle bravado or useless pertinacity, but of deliberate and cal- 
culating steadiness in their plan, which knew when to prudently 
give way, as well as when to boldly withstand. It is therefore 
fair to conclude, that the persecution here referred to, was so lim- 
ited as not to be directed against the apostles themselves, nor to 
hinder their useful labors. If any of them had been imprisoned 
during this persecution, certainly the rest would have been bla- 
mable for not escaping ; but the fact that they remained perfectly 
free, appears from their leaving the city without delay, on the 



peter's apostleship. 183 

occasion which now required their presence and assistance else- 
where. For as soon as they heard of the preachimg of Philip at 
Samaria, and of the willingness with which the Samaritans had 
received and believed the first communications of the word, they 
immediately sent to them Peter and John, who, as the chief 
teachers of the doctrines of Christ, might give the new converts a 
fuller preparation for their duties in their calling, than could be 
expected from one so lately commissioned as the zealous preacher 
who had first awakened them. These two great apostles, having 
come down to Samaria, prayed for the believers there that they 
might receive the Holy Spirit ; for this heavenly gift had not yet 
been imparted to them ; the only sign of their acceptance into the 
new faith having been their baptism by the hands of Philip, who 
does not seem to have been empowered to indue others with the 
same divine spirit which he had so abundantly received on him- 
self. But the apostles laying their hands on them, — as they had 
before done with such powerful effect on Stephen, Philip, and their 
fellow-servants, — now also inspired these second fruits with the 
same divine energy, which was instantly made manifest in them, 
by the usual signs. As soon as Simon saw the display of the new 
powers, with which those were suddenly gifted who had been made 
the subjects of this simple ceremony, he immediately concluded 
that he had at last found out the means of acquiring those mira- 
culous powers at which he had been so deeply amazed, and which 
he thought he could make vastly profitable to himself in his busi- 
ness, as a very decided improvement upon his old tricks. Think- 
ing only of the motive which always moved his mind to the be- 
stowment of such favors, he immediately took out the money he 
had gained by his impositions on the people, and offered the apos- 
tles a handsome share of it, if they would simply give him the 
valuable privilege of conferring this divine agency on all upon 
whom he should lay his hands, in the same manner as they. But 
his mercenary hopes were soon blasted by the indignant terms in 
which Peter rejected his insulting proposal, — " Thy money perish 
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God could be 
bought with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this mat- 
ter ; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Change thy 
mind, therefore, from this wickedness of thine, and ask God, if 
indeed there is any possibility, that the iniquity of thy heart may 
be forgiven thee ; for I see that thou art still full of the bitterness 
of thy former poisons, and bound fast in the chains of thy old in- 



184 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

iquities." Simon, hushed and overawed in his impertinent offers 
by this stern rebuke, sunk into a penitent tone again, and begged 
of them that they would pray for him, that the doom to perish 
with his money, as denounced by Peter, might not fall on him. 
Of the depth and sincerity of his penitence, no good testimony is 
left us ; but his submissive conduct, at best, seems to have been 
rather the result of a personal awe of the apostles, as his supe- 
riors in supernatural powers, than prompted by any true regard 
for their pure faith, or any just appreciation of their character and 
motives. The apostles, however, waited no longer to enlighten 
the mind of one so dark in his views of the divine agency ; but 
after they had borne witness to the truth of Philip's words and 
doctrines by their own preaching, they returned to Jerusalem, pro- 
claiming the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans, on the 
way. Philip also, having had his labors thus triumphantly 
crowned by the ministrations of the apostles, left Samaria, and 
turned his course southwards, towards Gaza, under the impulse 
and guidance of a divine spirit. On this journey, occurred his 
most interesting adventure with the lord high treasurer of the 
Ethiopian queen, after which Philip was found at Ashdod, on the 
sea; from which place, journeying northwards again, he went 
preaching through all the towns on the coast, till he arrived at his 
home, at Caesarea. 

THE BEGINNING OF PEACE. 

Soon after the return of the apostles to Jerusalem, an event oc- 
curred, which had a more mighty influence on the progress of the 
Christian religion than any other that had occurred since the as- 
cension of Jesus. The members of the church who still with- 
stood the storm of persecution in the city, were struck with no 
small amazement by the sudden appearance of Saul of Tarsus, the 
most bloody persecutor of their Hellenist brethren ; who, having 
exhausted the opportunities for the gratification of his spite against 
them in Jerusalem, had gone to Damascus, to seize such as there 
supposed themselves safe in following the new faith. This man, 
yet stained, as it were, with the blood of Stephen, now presented 
himself to them as a convert to the gospel, prepared to join them 
as a brother. The whole affair seemed to bear so decidedly the 
aspect of a palpable imposition, that they altogether refused to have 
any thing to do with him, and suspected the whole to be a deep- 
laid snare, on the part of this bloody foe of the gospel, who now 



peter's apostleship. 185 

appeared to be seeking, by false professions, to get into their con- 
fidence, that he might have the means of betraying them to utter 
ruin. But Barnabas, who was better acquainted with Saul, de- 
tailed to the church all the wonderful circumstances so fully, that 
they no longer hesitated to receive him as a brother and fellow- 
laborer. This remarkable conversion was of vast benefit to the 
cause of the gospel, not only by bringing to its aid the services of 
a laborer so competent, but also by removing from among its ad- 
versaries one who had been a leader and a contriver of every plot 
of mischief. As soon as he left the ranks of the foe, the vindic- 
tive persecution, which had raged ever since the death of Stephen, 
ceased, as though it had lost its great author and main support, by 
the defection of Saul of Tarsus. Indeed, the last act of this per- 
secution, which is recorded, was directed against this very man, 
who had once been a leader in it, and drove him out of the city 
which had been the scene of his cruelties. Therefore, the churches 
had rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, strength- 
ening and advancing in piety, and filled with the impulses of 
the Holy Spirit. This opportunity of quiet seemed peculiarly fa- 
vorable for a minute survey of the condition of these scattered 
churches, most of which had grown up without any direct agency 
of the apostles, and therefore needed their attention at this critical 
period. 

the survey op the churches. 

The most proper person for this responsible charge, was the 
great leader of the apostolic band ; and Peter, therefore, taking the 
task readily upon himself, went through all the churches, to give 
them the advantages of the minute personal ministry of a chief 
apostle, who might organize them, and instruct the disciples in 
their peculiar duties as members of a new religious community. 
On this tour of duty, passing down from the interior towards the 
sea-coast, he came to Lydda, about forty or fifty miles from Jeru- 
salem, and about twelve from the sea. Here there was a company 
of the faithful, whom he visited, to instruct them anew, and to 
enlarge their numbers, by his preaching and miracles. A particu- 
lar case is recorded as having occurred here, which displayed both 
the compassion of Peter and his divine power to heal and strengthen. 
Among the friends of Christ whom he visited here, was an invalid, 
whose name, Aeneas, shows him to have been a Hellenist. This 
man had for the long period of eight years been deprived of the 



186 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

use of his limbs, by a palsy, which, during that tedious interval, 
confined him to his bed. Peter, on seeing him, said — " Aeneas, 
Jesus Christ heals thee. Arise, and make thy bed for thyself." 
The command to spread and smooth the couch, which he now 
quitted in health, was given, that he might show and feel, at once, 
how fully strength was restored to his hands as well as his feet. 
This miracle soon became known, not only to the citizens of 
Lydda, but also to the people inhabiting the extensive and fertile 
plain of Sharon, which stretched to the northward of Lydda, along 
the coast, from Joppa to Caesarea, bounded on the west by the 
highlands of Samaria. The effect of this display of power and 
benevolence, was such, on their minds, that, without exception, 
they professed their faith in Christ. 

Lydda. — This was a place of far more importance and fame, than would be sup- 
posed from the brief mention of its name in the apostolic narrative. It is often men- 
tioned in the writings of the Rabbins, under the name of ft? (Ludh,) its original He- 
brew name, and was long the seat of a great college of Jewish law and theology, 
which at this very period of Peter's visit was in its most flourishing state. This ap- 
pears from the fact that Rabbi Akiba, who raised the school to its greatest eminence, 
was contemporary with the great Rabban Gamaliel, who bears an important part in 
the events of the apostolic history. (The Talmudic authority for this is found 
in Lightfoot.) It is easy to see, then, why so important a seat of Jewish theology 
should have been thought deserving of the particular notice and protracted stay of 
Peter, who labored with remarkable earnestness and effect here, inspired by the con- 
sciousness of the lasting and extensive good, that would result from an impression 
'made on this fountain of religious knowledge. The members of the college, how- 
ever, did not all, probably, profess themselves followers of Christ. 

It is also described as possessing some importance in addition to its literary privi- 
leges. Josephus (Ant. XX. vi. 3) mentions " Lydda" as " a village not inferior to a 
city in greatness." Its importance was, no doubt, in a great measure derived from 
the remarkably rich agricultural district which surrounded it. This was the plain 
of Sharon, so celebrated in the Hebrew scriptures for its fruitful fields and rich pas- 
tures, — its roses and its flocks. (Sol. Song. ii. 1 ; Isa. xxxiii. 9, xxxv. 2, lxv. 10; 
] Chron. xxvii. 29.) " All this country is described by Pococke as very rich soil, 
throwing up a great quantity of herbage ; among which he specifies chardons, rue, 
fennel, and the striped thistle, ' probably on this account called the holy thistle.' A 
great variety of anemonies, he was told, grow in the neighborhood." " I saw like- 
wise," he adds, " many tulips growing wild in the fields [in March :] and any one 
who considers how beautiful those flowers are to the eye, would be apt to conjecture 
that these are the lilies to which Solomon, in all his glory, w T as not to be compared." 
— (Mod. Trav. p. 57.) Its distance from Jerusalem is ascertained, by Lightfoot, to 
be one day's journey, as it is stated with some circumlocution in the Mishna. It was 
destroyed, as Josephus relates, by Cestius Gallius, the Roman general, who marched 
his armv through that region, in the beginning of the war which ended in the de- 
struction of Jerusalem. Under the peaceful times of the later Roman sway in Pales- 
tine, it was rebuilt, and called Diospolis. But like many other such instances, it has 
lost its temporary heathen name, and is now called by its old scripture appellation, 
Ludd. Travelers describe it as now a poor village, though the stones to be seen in 
the modern buildings show that it has been a place of great consequence. 

The New Testament name Lydda, (AiSSa,) by which Josephus also mentions it, is 
only so much changed from the Hebrew Ludh, as was necessary to accommodate it 
to the regular forms and inflexions of the Greek language. Lightfoot well refutes 
the blunder of many modern geographers who make the two names refer to different 
places. This learned author is remarkably full in the description of this place, and 
is very rich in references to the numerous allusions which are made to it in the Tal- 



187 

mudic writings. (See his Centuria Chorographica, Cap. 16, prefixed to Hor. Heb. 
et Talm. in Matt.) 

Aeneas. — This name is unquestionably Greek, which seems to show the man to 
have been a Hellenist ; and that he was already a believer in Christ, would appear 
from the fact of Peter's finding him among the brethren there. 

"Make thy bed for thyself." — These words best express the true force of the original 
arpdaov asavr^, (stroson seauto,) which is diminished in the common English transla- 
tion. The English translators overlooked the last word, and have thus neglected to 
give the full force of the command. Aeneas had before depended on others for this 
personal office ; the gift of strength by Peter now enabled him instantly, in token of 
the completeness of the miracle, to " make his bed/<?r himself." (Acts ix. 34.) 

THE VISIT TO JOPPA. 

Hardly had this instance of divine favor occurred in Lydda, 
when a new occasion for a similar effort presented itself, in the 
neighboring seaport town of Joppa. A female disciple of the 
faith of Christ, in that city, by name Tabitha, or in the Greek, 
Dorcas, (both names meaning Gazelle,) had distinguished herself 
and honored her religious profession, by the generous and charita- 
ble deeds which constantly employed her hands. This lady, so 
respected by all, and so loved by the poor, who gave witness to 
her goodness, — such an honor to the religious community which 
she had joined, — seemed to have so nobly done her part in life, 
that the order of Providence had apparently called her to rest from 
these labors, in that sleep from which no piety nor usefulness can 
save or recall their possessor. After a few days of illness, she 
died, and was, after the usual funeral ablutions, laid in an upper 
chamber to await the burial. In the midst of the universal grief 
for this sad loss, the members of the church at Joppa, knowing 
that Peter was in Lydda, within a few hours' journey, sent two 
messengers to him, to beg his presence among them, as some con- 
solation in their distress. Peter, on hearing of this occasion for 
his presence, with great readiness accompanied tho messengers 
back ; and on arriving at Joppa, went straight to the house of 
mourning. He was immediately led into the chamber, where he 
found a most affecting testimony to the nature of the loss which 
the afflicted community had suffered. Around the dead, stood the 
widows who, in their friendlessness, had been relieved by the sym- 
pathy of Dorcas, now pouring their tears and uttering their lamen- 
tations over her, and showing that even the garments which they 
wore were the work of her industrious hand, — that hand which, 
once so untiring in these labors of love, was now cold and mo- 
tionless in death. From that resistless doom, what mortal voice 
could ever recall even one so amiable and useful ? But, while they 
were sorrowing thus, Peter ordered them all to leave him alone 



188 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

with the dead; and when all witnesses were removed, he kneeled 
and prayed. The words of that prayer are not recorded ; and it 
is only by its successful efficiency that we know it to have been 
that fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man, which availeth 
much. It was such a prayer as, of old, the son of Shaphat offered 
over the dead child of the Shunamite, when alone with him ; and 
its effect was not less mighty. Rising at length, and turning to- 
wards the body, he said — " Tabitha, arise !" Awaking from the 
unbreathing sleep of death, as from a light slumber of an hour, 
she opened her eyes, and when she saw the majestic man of God, 
alone, and herself robed for the tomb, she sat up and gazed in 
amazement. Peter then, giving her his hand, lifted her from the 
funeral couch, and calling in the brethren and the widows, he pre- 
sented her to their astonished eyes, alive. Their overwhelming 
joy and wonder, we are left to imagine. The story, when made 
known through the city, brought many to acknowledge the truth 
of that religion whose minister could work such wonders; and 
many believed in Christ. The field of labor which now opened 
to Peter in this place, seemed so wide that he did not continue his 
journey any further at that time, but took up his abode, for several 
days, in Joppa, lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, whose 
house stood by the sea, near the water. 

Joppa, now called Jaffa. — This was from very early times a place of great im- 
portance, from the circumstance of its being the nearest seaport to Jerusalem. It is 
mentioned in reference to this particular of its situation, in 2 Chron. ii. 16, where it 
is specified (in Hebrew is* Japko) as the port to which the cedar timber from Leba- 
non should be floated down in rafts, to be conveyed to Jerusalem for building the tem- 
ple. It stood within the territories of the tribe of Dan, according to Josh. xix. 46, and 
lies about W. N. W. from Jerusalem. Strabo, (xvi.) in describing it, refers to it as 
the scene of the ancient Grecian fable of Andromeda rescued from the sea-monster 
by Perseus. He describes its site as " quite elevated, — so much so, indeed, that it 
was a common saying that Jerusalem might be seen from the place ; the inhabitants 
of which city use it as their seaport in all their maritime intercourse." Josephus 
mentions that it was added to the dominions of Herod the Great, by Augustus. Its 
present appearance is thus described by travelers. 

" It is situated in lat. 32 deg. 2 min. N., and Ion. 34 deg. 53 min. E., and is forty 
miles W. of Jerusalem. Its situation, as the nearest port to the Holy City, has been 
the chief cause of its importance. As a station for vessels, according to Dr. Clarke, 
its harbor is one of the worst in the Mediterranean. Ships generally anchor about a 
mile from the town, to avoid the shoals and rocks of the place. The badness of the 
harbor is mentioned, indeed, by Josephus. (Antiq. book xv. chap. 9.) * * * 
* * * The road is protected by a castle built on a rock, and there are some 
storehouses and magazines on the sea-side. The coast is low, but little elevated 
above the level of the sea ; but the town occupies an eminence, in the form of a 
sugar-loaf, with a citadel on the summit. The bottom of the hill is surrounded with 
a wall twelve or fourteen feet high, and two or three feet thick. * * * * 
There are no antiquities in Jaffa : the place would seem to be too old to have any — 
to have outlived all that once rendered it interesting. The inhabitants are estimated 
at between four and five thousand souls, of whom the greater part are Turks and 
Arabs ; the Christians are stated to be about six hundred, consisting of Roman Cath- 
olics, Greeks, Maronites, and Armenians." [Mod. Trav. Palest, pp. 41, 42.] 




26 



189 

Dorcas. — This is the Greek translation of the old Hebrew -ox, ( Tsebi,) in the Ara- 
maic dialect of that age, changed into sn-an, ( Tabitha,) in English, " gazelle," a beau- 
tiful animal of the antelope kind, often mentioned in descriptions of the deserts of 
southwestern Asia, in which it roams ; and not unfrequently the subject of poetical 
allusion. The species to which it is commonly supposed to belong, is the Antilopa 
Dorcas of Prof. Pallas, who named it on the supposition that it was identical with this 
animal, called by the Greeks, Aopicas, (Dorkas,) from Atp/cu, (Derko,) " to look," from 
the peculiar brightness and earnest expression of "its soft black eye." In the Old 
Testament, the corresponding Hebrew word is always rendered " roe," in the com- 
mon English version. (As in 1 Kings iv. 23: 1 Chron. xii. 8: Prov. vi. 5: Solom. 
Song. ii. 7, 9, iii. 5, iv. 5, vii. 3.) This is, however, wholly inappropriate, since the 
animal thus designated in English is of the deer kind, (genus Cervus,) and not of 
the Antelope, like this. The Persian word gazelle has, therefore, very properly been 
adopted for the English name of the animal, and has already become classic in the 
noble melody, which thus associates its grace with the country and the sorrows of the 
Hebrew. 

" The wild gazelle, on Judah's hills, 

Exulting yet may bound, 

And drink from all the living rills, 

That gush on holy ground; 

Its airy step, and glorious eye, 

May glance in tameless transport by." 
Moore's well-known words are equally expressive of its beauty and grace. 

THE CALL TO THE HEATHEN. 

The apostles had now, with great zeal and efficiency, preached 
the gospel of Jesus Christ to the worshipers of the true God, — 
beginning at Jerusalem, and spreading the triumphs of his name 
to the bounds of the land of Israel. But in all their devotion to 
their Master's work, they had never had a thought of breaking 
over the bounds of the faith of their fathers, or of making their 
doctrine any thing else than a mere completion or accompaniment 
to the law of Moses ; nor did they imagine that they were ever to 
extend the blessings of the gospel to any who did not bow down 
to all the tedious rituals of the ancient covenant. The true power 
of their Lord's parting command, — " Go and teach all nations" 
they had never felt ; and even now, their great chief supposed that 
the change of heart and remission of sins, which he was com- 
missioned to preach, were for none but the devout adherents of 
the Jewish faith. A new and signal call was needed, to bring 
the apostles to a full sense of their enlarged duties ; and it is among 
the highest honors vouchsafed to Peter, that he was the person 
chosen to receive this new view of the boundless field now opened 
for the battles and triumphs of the cross. To him, as the head 
and representative of the whole band of the apostles, was now 
spread out, in all its moral vastness and its physical immensity, 
the coming dominion of that faith, whose little seed he was now 
cherishing, with but a humble hope ; but whose stately trunk and 
giant branches were, from that small and low beginning, to stretch, 



190 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

in a mighty growth, over lands and worlds to him unknown. 
Thus far he had labored with a high and holy zeal, in a cause 
whose vastness he had never appreciated, — every moment building 
up unwittingly a name for himself, which should outlast all the 
glories of the ancient covenant ; and securing for his Master a do- 
minion which the religion of Moses could never have reached. 
He had never had an idea, that he with his companions was found- 
ing and spreading a new religion : — to purify the religion of the 
law and the prophets, and to rescue it from the confusion and pollu- 
tions of warring sectaries, was all that they had thought of; yet with 
this end in view, they had been securing the attainment of one so 
far above and beyond, that a full and sudden view of the conse- 
quences of their humble deeds, would have appalled them. But 
though the mighty plan had never been whispered nor dreamed 
of, on earth, — though it was too immense for its simple agents to 
endure its full revelation at once, — its certain accomplishment had 
been ordained in heaven, and its endless details were to be fully 
learned only in its triumphant progress through uncounted ages. 
But, limited as was the view which the apostles then had of the 
high destiny of the cause to which they had devoted themselves, 
it was yet greatly extended from the low-born notions with which 
they had first followed the steps of their Master. They now 
no longer entertained the vagary of a worldly triumph and a 
worldly reward ; they had left that on the mount where their Lord 
parted from them ; and they were now prayerfully laboring for the 
establishment of a pure spiritual kingdom in the hearts of the 
righteous. To give them a just idea of the exalted freedom to 
which the gospel brought its sons, and to open their hearts to 
a Christian fellowship as wide as the whole human family, God 
now gave the great apostolic leader an unquestionable call to tell- 
to the world the glad tidings of salvation for all men through a 
new and living way, by change of heart and remission of sins. 
The incidents which led to this revelation are thus detailed. 

The peace and good order of Palestine were now secured by 
several legions, whose different divisions, larger or smaller accord- 
ing to circumstances, were quartered in all the strong or important 
places in the country, to repress disorders, and enforce the author- 
ity of the civil power, when necessary. Besides this ordinary 
peace-establishment of the province, there was a cohort which took 
its name from the circumstance that it had been levied in Italy, — 
a distinction, now so rare, in consequence of the introduction of 



peter's apostleship. 191 

foreign mercenaries into the imperial hosts, as to become the oc- 
casion of an honorable eminence, which was signified by the title 
here given, showing that this division of the Roman armies was 
made up of the sons of that soil which had so long sent forth the 
conquerors of the world. Of all the variety of service required 
of the different detachments of the army, in the province which it 
guarded, by far the most honorable was that of being stationed 
next the person of the governor of the province, to maintain the 
military dignity of his vice-imperial court, and defend his repre- 
sentative majesty. Caesarea, on the sea-shore, was now the seat 
of the Roman government of Palestine ; and here, in attendence 
on the person of the governor, was this aforesaid Italian cohort, 
at the head of a company in which was a centurion named Cor- 
nelius. Though nothing is given respecting his birth and family 
but this single name, a very slight knowledge of Roman history 
and antiquities enables the historian to decide, that he was de- 
scended from a noble race of patricians, which had produced sev- 
eral of the most illustrious families of the imperial city. Emi- 
nent by this high birth and military rank, he must have been fa- 
vored with an education worthy of his family and station. It is, 
therefore, allowable to conclude that he was an intelligent and well- 
informed gentleman, whom years of foreign service in the armies 
of his country must have improved, by the combined advantages 
of a traveler and a disciplined warrior. Of his moral and reli- 
gious character, such an account is given, as proves that his prin- 
ciples, probably implanted in early life, had been of such firmness 
as to withstand the numerous temptations of a soldier's life, and to 
secure him in a course of most uncommon rectitude in his duties 
towards God and towards man. In the merciful exercise of his 
power over the people whose safety and quiet he came to maintain, 
and, moreover, in the generous use of his pecuniary advantages, 
he passed his blameless life ; and the high motive of this noble 
conduct, is discovered in the steady, pure devotion, in which he 
employed many hours of daily retirement, and in which he caused 
his whole family openly to join, on proper occasions. Thus is 
he briefly and strongly characterized by the sacred historian : — 
" devout, and fearing God with all his house ; giving much alms, 
and praying to God always." 

Noble race of patricians. — The gens Cornelia, or " Cornelian race," was unequaled 
in Rome for the great number of noble families sprung from its stock. The Scipios, 
the Sullas, the Dolabellas, the Cinnas, theLentuli, the Cethegi, the Cossi, and many 
other illustrious branches of this great race, are conspicuous in Roman history ; and 



192 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the Fasti Consulares record more than sixty of the Cornelian race, who had borne 
the consular dignity previous to the apostolic era. This is always a family name, and 
Ainsworth very greatly errs in calling it " the praenomen of several Romans." Every 
Roman name of the middle and later ages of the commonwealth, had, at least, three 
parts, which were the praenomen, marking the individual, — the nomen marking the 
gens, (" race," " stock,") and the cognomen, marking the family or division of that 
great stock. Thus, in the name " Publius Cornelius Scipio," the last word shows 
that the person belonged to the Scipio family, which by the second word is seen to be 
of the great Cornelian stock, while the first shows that this member of the family was 
distinguished from his relations, by the name of Publius. (See Adam's Roman An- 
tiquities, on Names.) Wherever this name, Cornelius, occurs, if the whole appella- 
tion of the man is given, this comes in the middle, as the nomen, marking the race ; 
as is the case with every one of those quoted by Ainsworth, in his mistaken account 
of the word. See also Sallust, (Catil. §§ 47, 55,) in defense of this peculiar limitation 
of the word to the gens. Not a single instance can be brought of its application to 
any person not of this noble patrician race, or of its use as a mere individual appel- 
lation. I am therefore authorized in concluding that this Cornelius mentioned in the 
Acts was related to this line of high nobility. It might, perhaps, be conjectured, that 
he had borrowed this name from that noble race, from having once been in the ser- 
vice of some one of its families, as was common in the case of freedmen, after they 
had received their liberty ; but this supposition is not allowable ; for he is expressly 
particularized as belonging to an Italian division of the army, which fact excludes 
the idea of that foreign origin which would belong to a slave. The Jews having but 
one name for each man, seldom gave all of a Roman's name, unless of a very emi- 
nent man, as Pontius Pilate, SergiusPaulus, and other important characters ; but, se- 
lecting any one of the three parts which might be most convenient, they made that 
the sole appellative, whether praenomen, nomen, or cognomen. As in Luke ii. 2, Acts 
xxiii. 24, xxv. 1, xxvii. 1, &c. 

The Italian cohort. — The word En-apa, (Speira,) I translate " cohort," rather than 
u legion," as the older commentators did. Jerome translates it " cohortem," and he 
must have known the exact technical force of the Greek word, and to what Latin 
military term it corresponded, from his living in the time when these terms must 
have been in frequent use. Those who prefer to translate it " legion," are misled by 
the circumstance, that Tacitus, and other writers on Roman affairs, mention a legion 
which had the distinctive appellation of "the Italian legion;" while it has been sup- 
posed that these ancient authors make no mention of an Italian cohort. But the 
deeply learned Wetstein, with his usual vast classical research, has shown several 
such passages, in Arrian and others, in which mention is made of an Italian cohort; 
and in Gruter's inscriptions, quoted by Kuinoel, there is an account of " a volunteer 
cohort of Italian soldiers in Syria ;" and Palestine was at this time included with 
Syria, under the presidency of Petronius. This inscription too, justifies my remark 
as to the high character of those who served in this corps. " Cohors militum Itali- 
corum voluntaria" seems to imply a body of soldiers of a higher character than the 
ordinary mercenary mass of the army, being probably made up of volunteers from 
respectable families of Italy, who chose to enlarge their knowledge of the world by 
foreign military service, in this very honorable station of life-guard to the Roman 
governor, as Doddridge and others suppose this to have been. (See Doddridge on 
this passage ; also, C. G. Schwartz in Wolf. Cur. Phil, in loc.) It is considered also 
as fairly proved that the " Italian legion" was not formed till a much later period ; 
so that it is rendered in the highest degree probable and unquestionable, that this was 
a cohort, and, as Schwartz and Doddridge prove, not a mere ordinary cohort, making 
the tenth part of a common legion of 4200, but a distinct and independent corps, at- 
tached to no legion, and devoted to the exclusive honorable service abovementioned. 
(See Bloomfield, Kuinoel, Rosenmtiller, Wetstein, Wolf, &c. in loc.) 

Devout. — Some have tried hard to make out that Cornelius was what they call 
" a proselyte of the gate;" that is, one who, though not circumcised, nor conform- 
ing to the rituals generally, yet was an observer of the moral law. But Lardner very 
fully shows that there were not two sorts of proselytes ; all -who bore that name fully 
conforming to the Jewish rituals, but still called " strangers," &c. ; because, though 
admitted to all the religious privileges of the covenant, they were excluded from the 
civil and political privileges of Jews, and could not be freeholders. Cornelius must 
then have been a mere Gentile. (See Lardner in his life of Peter ; also Kuinoel and 
Bloomfield.) 

Caesarea. — This is another of those cities enlarged or rebuilt by the princes of the 



peter's apostleship. 193 

Herodian line, and honored with the names of the imperial family. This city stood 
on the sea-shore, about 30 miles N. of Joppa ; and (Mod. Trav.) 62 N. N. West from 
Jerusalem. (600 stad. Joseph.) It has been idly conjectured by the Rabbinical wri- 
ters, that this was the same with Ekron, of the Old Testament, Zeph. ii. 4 ; while 
the Arabic version gives it as Hazor, Josh. xi. 1, — both with about equal probability. 
The earliest name by which it can be certainly recognized, is Apollonia, which it 
bore when it passed from the Syro-Grecians to the Maccabean princes. Its common 
name, in the time of Herod the Great, was mipyos Lrpdrwvos, (purgos stratonos,) tur- 
ris Strabonis, " Straton's castle," from the name of a Greek pirate, who had built a 
strong hold here. Herod the Great made it the most splendid city in his dominions, 
and even in all the eastern part of the Roman empire ; and in honor of Augustus 
Caesar, called it Caesarea Augusta. It was sometimes called Caesarea Palestinae, 
to distinguish it from Caesarea Philippi ; for Palestine was then a name limited to 
the southern part of the coast of the Holy Land, and was bounded on the north by 
Phoenicia. This city was the capital of the whole Holy Land throughout the period 
of the later Herodian and Roman sway. For a full account of this city, and the 
whole history of its erection, see Josephus. (Ant. XV. ix. 6.) 

To this man was sent the^- first heavenly call, which ended in 
bringing in the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth revealed by- 
Jesus. After having fasted all day, he was employed in his regu- 
lar devotions, at the usual hour of prayer, (three o'clock in the 
afternoon,) when his senses were overwhelmed by a vision, in 
which he had a distinct view of a messenger of God, in shirring 
garments, coming to him ; and heard him call him by his name, 
— " Cornelius !" Looking at him as steadily as he was able in his 
great alarm, Cornelius asked — " What is it, Lord?" The heavenly 
visitant replied, in words of consolation and high praise : — " Thy 
prayers and thy alms have come up in remembrance before God. 
And now send men to Joppa, and call for a man named Simon 
Peter, lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea- 
side. He, when he comes, shall tell thee what it is right that thou 
shouldst do." When the surprising messenger had given this 
charge, he departed ; and Cornelius, without delay, went to fulfil 
the minute directions he had received. He called two of his do- 
mestics, and a devout soldier of the detachment then on duty near 
him, and having related to them all that he had just seen and 
heard, he sent them to Joppa, to invite Peter according to the order. 
The distance between the two places is about thirty-five miles, and 
being too great to be easily traveled in one day, they journeyed 
thither during a part of two days, starting immediately when they 
received the command, though late in the afternoon. While they 
were continuing their journey, the next day, and were now near 
to the city of Joppa, Peter, without any idea of the important task 
to which he was soon to be summoned, went up, as usual, to the 
Alijah, or place of prayer, upon the house-top, at about twelve 
o'clock, mid-day. Having, according to the usual custom of the 



194 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Jews, fasted for many hours, for the sake of keeping the mind 
clear from the effects of gross food on the body, and at length be- 
coming sensible that he had pushed himself to the utmost limits of 
safe abstinence, he wished for food, and ordered his dinner. While 
the servants were preparing it, he continued above, in the place of 
prayer, where, enfeebled by fasting, and over-wrought by mental 
effort, he fell into a state of spiritual excitement, in which the mind 
is most susceptible of strong impressions of things beyond the reach 
of sense. In this condition, there appeared to him a singular 
vision, which subsequent events soon enabled him fully to inter- 
pret. It seemed to him that a great sheet was let down from the 
sky, to which it was fastened by the four corners, containing on its 
vast surface all sorts of animals that were forbidden as food by the 
Mosaic law. While the apostle gazed upon this vast variety of ani- 
mals, which education had taught him to consider unclean, there 
came a voice to him, calling him by name, and commanding him 
to arise, kill, and eat. All his prejudices and early religious im- 
pressions were roused by such a proposal ; and, resisting the invi- 
sible speaker as the agent of temptation to him in his bodily ex- 
haustion, he replied, in all the pride of a scrupulous and unpolluted 
Jew — " By no means, Lord, because I have never eaten any thing 
improper or unclean." The mysterious voice again said — " What 
God hath cleansed, do not thou consider improper." This impress- 
ive scene having been twice repeated, the whole was withdrawn 
back into heaven. This remarkable vision immediately called out 
all the energies of Peter's mind, in its explanation. But before he 
had time to decide for himself what was meant by it, the messen- 
gers from Caesarea had inquired out the house of Simon, and coming 
to the outside of the door, they called to learn whether Simon, who 
was surnamed Peter, lodged there. And while the mind of Peter 
was still intently occupied with the vision, he received an intima- 
tion from the unerring spirit, that his presence was required else- 
where. " Behold ! three men are seeking thee ; but rise up and go 
with them, without hesitation — for I have sent them." Thus urged 
and encouraged, Peter went directly down to the men sent by Cor- 
nelius, and said — " Behold ! I am he whom ye seek. What is 
your object in coming here ?" They at once unfolded their errand. 
" Cornelius, a centurion, a just man, fearing God, and of good 
repute among all the Jews, was instructed by a holy messenger, to 
send for thee to his house, that he may hear something from thee." 
Peter, already instructed as to the proper reception of the invita- 



195 

tion, asked them in, and hospitably entertained them till the next 
day, improving the delay, no doubt, by learning as many of the 
circumstances of the case as they could give him. The news of 
this remarkable call was also made known to the brethren of the 
church in Joppa, some of whom were so highly interested in what 
they heard that evening, that they resolved to accompany Peter 
the next day, with the messengers, to see and hear for themselves 
the details of a business which promised to result so fairly in the 
glory of Christ's name, and the wide enlargement of his kingdom. 
On the next day, the whole party set out together, and reached 
Caesarea, the second day of their journey ; and going straight to 
the house of Cornelius, they found quite a large company there, 
awaiting their arrival. For Cornelius, expecting them, had in- 
vited his relations and his intimate friends to hear the extraordi- 
nary communications which had been promised him, from his 
visitor. The kindred here alluded to were, perhaps, those of his 
wife, whom, according to a very common usage, he may have 
married in the place where he was stationed ; for it is hardly pro- 
bable that a Roman captain from Italy could have had any of his 
own blood relations about him, unless, perhaps, some of them 
might have enlisted with him, and now been serving with him on 
this honorable post. His near friends, who completed the assembly, 
were probably such of his brother officers as he knew to possess 
kindred tastes with himself, and to take an interest in religious 
matters. Such was the meeting that Peter found sitting in expec 
tation of his coming ; and so high were the ideas which Cornelius 
had formed of the character of his visitor, that, as soon as he met 
him on his entrance into the house, he fell down at his feet, and 
paid him reverence as a superior being ; — an act of abasement to- 
wards the inhabitant of a conquered country, most rare and re- 
markable in a Roman officer, and one to which nothing but a 
notion of supernatural excellence could ever have brought him, 
since this was a position assumed not even by those who ap- 
proached the emperor himself. Peter, however, had no desire to 
be made the object of a reverence so nearly resembling idolatry. 
Raising up the prostrate Roman, he said — " Stand up ; for I my- 
self am also a man." Entering into familiar discourse with him, 
he now advanced into the house, and going with him to the great 
room, he there found a numerous company. He addressed them 
in these words : — " You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to be 

familiar with, or even to visit, one of another nation ; but God has 

27 



196 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

taught me to call no man profane or unclean. Wherefore, I came 
at your summons, without hesitation. Now, then, I ask with what 
design have you sent for me ?" And Cornelius said — " Four days 
ago, I was fasting till this hour ; and at the ninth hour I was pray- 
ing in my house ;" — and so having gone on to narrate all the cir- 
cumstances of his vision, as given above, concluded in these 
words : — " For this reason I sent for thee, and thou hast done well 
in coming, for we are all here, before God, to hear what has been 
imparted to thee, from God." And Peter began solemnly to speak, 
and said — " Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of per- 
sons ; but that in every nation, he that fears him and does what is 
right, is approved by him." With this solemn profession of a new 
view of this important principle of universal religion, as a begin- 
ning, he went on to satisfy their high expectations, by setting forth 
to them the sum and substance of the gospel doctrine, of whose 
rise and progress they had already, by report, heard a vague and 
partial account. The great and solemn truth which the Spirit had 
summoned him to proclaim, was — that Jesus Christ the crucified 
was ordained by God the judge of both living and dead ; and that 
through him, as all the prophets testified, every one that believed 
should have remission of sins. Of his resurrection from the dead, 
Peter declared himself the witness, as well as of his labors of 
good-will towards man, when, anointed with the Spirit of God, he 
went about doing good. Thus did Peter discourse, excited by the 
novel and divinely appointed occasion, till the same divine influ- 
ence that moved his heart and tongue was poured out on his 
charmed hearers ; and they forthwith manifested the signs of 
change of heart and devout faith in Christ, as the Son of God and 
the judge of the world, and made known the delight of their new 
sensations, in words of miraculous power. At this display of the 
equal and impartial grace of God, the Jewish church-members 
from Joppa, who had accompanied Peter to Caesarea, were greatly 
amazed, having never before imagined it possible for the influences 
of the divine Spirit to be imparted to any who had not devoutly 
conformed to all the rituals of the holy law, of old given by God 
to Moses, whose high authority was attested amid the smoke and 
flame and thunder of Sinai. And what change was this ? In the 
face of this awful sanction, these believing followers of Moses and 
Christ saw the outward signs of the inward action of that Spirit 
which they had been accustomed to acknowedge as divine, now 
moving with the same holy energy the souls and voices of those 



197 

born and bred among the heathen, without the consecrating aid of 
one of those forms of purification, by which Moses had ordained 
their preparation for the enjoyment of the blessings of God's holy 
covenant with his own peculiar people. Moved by that same mys- 
terious and holy influence, the Gentile warriors of Rome now lifted 
up their voices in praise of the God of Israel and of Abraham, — 
doubtless, too, their God and Father, though Abraham were igno- 
rant of them, and Israel acknowledged them not ; since through 
his son Jesus a new covenant had been sealed in blood, opening 
and securing the blessings of that merciful and faithful promise 
to all nations. On Jehovah they now called as their Father and 
Redeemer, whose name was from everlasting, — known and wor- 
shiped long ere Abraham lived. Never before had the great par- 
tition-wall between Jews and Gentiles been thus broken down ; nor 
had the noble and equal freedom of the new covenant ever yet 
been so truly and fully made known. And who was he that had 
thus boldly trampled on the legal usages of the ancient Mosaic 
covenant, as consecrated by the reverence of ages, and had im- 
parted the holy signs of the Christian faith to men shut out from 
the mysteries of the inner courts of the house of God ? It was not 
a presumptuous or unauthorized man, nor one thoughtless of the 
vastly important consequences of the act. It was the constituted 
leader of the apostolic band, who now, in direct execution of his 
solemn commission received from his Master, and in the literal ful- 
filment of the prophetic charge given therewith at the base of dis- 
tant Hermon, opened the gates of the kingdom of heaven to all 
nations. Bearing the keys of the kingdom of God on earth, he 
now, in the set time of divine appointment, at the call of his 
Master in heaven, so signally given to him both directly and in- 
directly, unlocked the long-closed door, and with a voice of hea- 
venly charity, bade the waiting Gentiles enter. This was the 
mighty commission with which Jesus had so prophetically honored 
this chief disciple at Caesarea Philippic — and here, at Caesarea 
August a, was achieved the glorious fulfilment of this before mys- 
terious announcement : — Simon Peter, now in the accomplishment 
of that divinely appointed task, became the Rock, on which the 
church of Christ was, through the course of ages, reared ; and in 
this act, the first stone of its broad Gentile foundation was laid. 

On duty about him. — This phrase is the just translation of the technical term irpoc- 
naprepovvTwv, (proskarterounton,) according to Price, Kuinoel, Bloomfield, &c. 

The Alijah. — (Heb. mSy.) This is the proper Hebrew name for that apartment in 
Oriental houses, which is enclosed on the flat roof, and is sometimes covered, consti- 



198 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tuting, always, the place of secret devotion in a Hebrew family. When not wholly 
exposed to the sky, it was at least so far open as to permit the eye to look beyond the 
place in the direction of the temple at Jerusalem, which was the great centre of He- 
brew devotion. 

Of all the honors with which his apostolic career was marked, 
there is none which equals this, — the revolutionizing of the whole 
gospel plan as before understood and advanced by its devotees, — 
the enlargement of its scope beyond the widest range of any mere- 
ly Jewish charity, — and the disenthralment of its subjects from the 
antique formality and cumbrous ritual of the Jewish worship. 
And of all the events which the apostolic history records, there is 
none which, in its far-reaching and long-lasting effects, can match 
the opening of Christ's kingdom to the Gentiles. What would 
have been the rate of its advancement under the management of 
those, who, like the apostles hitherto, looked on it as a mere im- 
provement and spiritualization of the old Mosaic form, to which 
it was, in their view, only an appendage, and not a substitute ? 
Think of what chances there were of its extension, under such 
views, to those far western lands where, ages ago, it reached with its 
benign influences the Teutons and Northmen from whom we have 
descended : — or of what possibility there was of ever bringing un- 
der the intolerable yoke of Jewish forms, the hundreds of millions 
who now, out of so many lands and kindreds and tongues, bear 
the light yoke, and own the simple faith of Jesus, confessing him 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Yet hitherto, so far from 
seeing these things in their true light, all the followers of Christ 
had, notwithstanding his broad and open commission to them, 
steadily persisted in the notion, that the observance of the regula- 
tions laid down by Moses for proselytes to his faith, was equally 
essential for a full conversion to the faith of Christ. And now, 
too, it required a new and distinctly repeated summons from above, 
to bring even the great chief of the apostles to the just sense of 
the freedom of the gospel, and to the practical belief that God was 
no respecter of persons. But the whole progress of the event, 
with all its miraculous attestations, left so little doubt as to the 
nature of the change, that Peter, after the manifestation of the 
Holy Spirit in the hearts and voices of the Gentile converts, tri- 
umphantly appealed to the Jewish brethren who had accompa- 
nied him from Joppa, and asked them — "Can any one forbid 
the water for the baptizing of these, who have received the Holy 
Spirit as well as we ?" Taking the unanimous suffrage of their 
silence to his challenge, as a full consent, he gave directions that 



199 

the believing Romans should be baptized in the name of the Lord, 
as Jesus in his parting charge had constituted that ordinance for 
the seal of redemption to every creature, in all the nations to 
whom the gospel should be preached. Having thus formally en- 
rolled the first Gentile converts, as the free and complete partakers 
of the blessings of the new covenant, he stayed among them 
several days, at their request, strengthening their faith, and en- 
larging their knowledge by his pastoral instruction ; which he 
deemed a task of sufficient importance to detain him, for a while, 
from his circuit among the new converts, scattered about in other 
places, throughout Palestine, and from any immediate return to his 
friends and converts at Joppa, where this call had found him. 



Meanwhile, this mighty innovation on the established order of 
sacred things could not be long unknown beyond the cities of 
Caesarea and Joppa, but was soon announced by the varied voice 
of rumor to the amazed apostles and brethren at Jerusalem. The 
impression made on them by this vague report of their great 
leader's proceedings, was most decidedly unfavorable ; and there 
seem to have been not a few who regarded this unprecedented act 
of Peter as a downright abuse of the dignity and authority with 
which the special commission of his Master had invested him. 
Doubtless, in that little religious community, as in every other as- 
sociation of men ever gathered, there were already many human 
jealousies springing up like roots of bitterness, which needed but 
such an occasion as this, to manifest themselves in decided cen- 
sure of the man, whose remarkable exaltation over them might 
seem like a stigma on the capacities or merits of those to whom 
he was preferred. Those in whose hearts such feelings had been 
rankling, now found a great occasion for the display of their reli- 
gious zeal, in this bold movement of their constituted leader, who 
herein seemed to have presumed on his distinction, and priority, to 
act in a matter of the very highest importance, without the slight- 
est reference to the feelings and opinions of those who had been 
with him chosen for the great work of spreading the gospel to all 
nations. And so much of free opinion and expression was there 
among them, that this act of the chief apostle called forth com- 
plaints both deep and loud, from his brethren, against this open 
and unexplained violation of the holy ordinances of that ancient 
law, which was still to them and him the seal and sign of salva- 



200 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tion. Peter, at length, after completing his apostolic circuit among 
the churches, of which no farther account is given to us, returned 
to Jerusalem, to meet these murmurs with the bold and clear de- 
claration of the truth. As soon as he arrived, the dissatisfied party- 
burst out on him with open complaints of his violations of the 
strict religious exclusiveness of demeanor, which became a son of 
Israel professing the pure reformed faith of Jesus. The unhesi- 
tating boldness with which this charge of a breach of order was 
made against Peter by the sticklers for circumcision, is a valuable 
and interesting proof, that all his authority and dignity among 
them, did not amount to any thing like a supremacy ; and that 
whatever he might bind or loose on earth for the high sanction of 
heaven, he could neither bind the tongues and opinions, nor loose 
the consciences of these sturdy and free-spoken brethren. Nor 
does Peter seem to have had the least idea of claiming any exemp- 
tion from their critical review of his actions ; but straightway ad- 
dressed himself respectfully to them, in a faithful detail of his 
conduct, and the reasons of it. He distinctly recounted to them 
the clear and decided call which he considered himself to have 
received from heaven, by which he was summoned as the spiritual 
guide of the inquiring Gentiles. And after the honest recital of 
the whole series of incidents, and of the crowning act of the 
whole, the imparting to them the outward sign of inward washing 
from their sins, he boldly appealed to the judgments of his accusers, 
to say whether, in the face of such a sanction, they would have 
had him do otherwise. "When the Holy Ghost fell on them, as 
on us at the beginning, then remembered I the word of the Lord, 
how that he said," [when parting from us, on the top of Olivet, to 
rise to the bosom of his Father, prophetically announcing a new 
and holy consecration and endowment for our work,] " John in- 
deed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost." [This peculiar gift thus solemnly announced, we had 
indeed received at the pentecost, and its outward signs we had 
thereby learned infallibly by our own experience ; and even so, at 
Caesarea, I recognized in those Gentiles the same tokens by which 
I knew the workings of divine grace in myself and you.] " For- 
asmuch, then, as God gave them the like gift as to us, who be- 
lieved on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I, that I should with- 
stand God?" — This clear and unanswerable appeal silenced the 
clamors of the bold assertors of the inviolability of Mosaic forms ; 
and when they heard these things, they held their peace, and, 



peter's apostleship. 201 

softened from their harsh spirit of rebuke, they, in a noble feeling 
of truly Christian triumph, forgot all their late exclusiveness, in 
a pure joy for the new and vast extension of the dominion of 
Christ, secured by this act, whose important consequences they 
were not slow in perceiving. They praised God for such a begin- 
ning of mighty results ; and laying aside, in this moment of exulta- 
tion, every feeling of narrow Jewish bigotry, they acknowledged 
that " to the Gentiles also, God had granted repentance unto life." 

HEROD AGRIPPA. 

At this time, the monarch of the Roman world was Caius 
Caesar, commonly known by his surname, Caligula. Among 
the first acts of a reign, whose outset was deservedly popular for 
its numerous manifestations of prudence and benevolence, forming 
a strange contrast with subsequent tyranny and folly, was the ad- 
vancement of a tried and faithful friend, to the regal honors and 
power which his birth entitled him to claim, and from which the 
neglectful indifference at first, and afterwards the revengeful spite 
of the preceding Caesar, Tiberius, had long excluded him. This 
was Herod Agrippa, grandson of that great Herod, who, by the 
force of his own exalted genius, and by the favor of the imperial 
Augustas, rose from the place of a friendless foreign adventurer, 
to the kingly sway of all Palestine. This extensive power he ex- 
ercised in a manner which was, on the whole, ultimately advan- 
tageous to his subjects ; but his whole reign, and the later years of 
it more particularly, were marked by cruelties the most infamous, 
to which he was led by almost insane fits of wild and causeless 
jealousy. On none of the subjects of his power, did this tyran- 
nical fury fall with such frequent and dreadful visitations, as on 
his own family ; and it was there, that, in his alternate fits of fury 
and remorse, he was often made the avenger of his own victims. 
Among these numerous domestic cruelties, one of the earliest, and 
the most distressing, was the murder of the amiable Mariamne, 
the daughter of the last of the Asamonean line, — 

" Herself the solitary scion left 
Of a time-honored race," 

which Herod's remorseless policy had exterminated. Her, he made 
his wife, and after a few years, sacrificed her to some wild freak 
of jealousy, only to reap long years of agonizing remorse for the 
hasty act, when a cooler search had shown, too late, her stainless 
innocence. But a passionate despot never yet learned wisdom by 



202 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

being made to feel the recoil of his own folly ; and in the course 
of later years this cruelty was equaled, and almost outdone, by a 
similar act, committed by him on those whom her memory should 
have saved, if any thing could. The innocent and unfortunate 
Mariamne left him two sons, then mere children, whom the mi- 
serable, repentant tyrant, cherished and reared with an affectionate 
care, which might almost have seemed a partial atonement for the 
injuries of their murdered mother. After some years passed in 
obtaining a foreign education at the imperial court of Rome, these 
two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, returned at their father's 
summons, to his court, where their noble qualities, their eloquence 
and manly accomplishments, as well as the interest excited by 
their mother's fate, drew on them the favorable and admiring regard 
of the whole people. But all that made them admirable and 
amiable to others, was as powerless as the memory of their mother, 
to save them from the fury of the suspicious tyrant. Those whose 
interests could be promoted by such a course, soon found means 
to make them objects of jealousy and terror to him, and ere long 
involved them in a groundless accusation of conspiring against his 
dominion and life. The uneasiness excited in Herod by their 
great popularity and their commanding talents, led him to believe 
this charge ; and the wretched old king, driven from fear to jea- 
lousy, and from jealousy to fury, at last crowned his own wretch- 
edness and their wrongs, by strangling them both, after an impri- 
sonment of so great a length as to take away from his crime even 
the shadowy excuse of hastiness. This was one of the last acts 
of a bloody life ; but ere he died, returning tenderness towards the 
unfortunate race of Mariamne, led him to spare and cherish the 
infant children of Aristobulus, the younger of the two, who left 
three sons and two daughters to the tender mercies of his cruel 
father. One of these was the person who is concerned in the 
next event of Peter's life, and whose situation and conduct in re- 
ference to that affair, was such as to justify this prolonged episode. 
He received in infancy the name of Agrippa, out of compliment 
to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the favorite and minister of Augus- 
tus Caesar, and the steady friend of the great Herod. This name 
was exclusively borne by this son of Aristobulus in childhood, nor 
was it ever displaced by any other, except by some of the Jews, 
who, out of compliment to the restoration of the Herodian line of 
kings, in place of the Roman sub-governors, gave him the name 
of his royal grandfather, so that he is mentioned only by the name 



203 

of Herod, in the story of the Acts of the Apostles ; but the Romans 
and Greeks seem to have known him only by his proper name of 
Agrippa. The tardy repentance of his grandfather did not extend 
to any important permanent provision for the children of Aristo- 
bulus ; but on his death a few years after, they were left with the 
great majority of the numerous progeny of Herod, to the preca- 
rious fortunes of dependent princes. The young Agrippa having 
married his own cousin, Cypros, the daughter of a daughter of 
Herod and Mariamne, sailed to Rome, where he remained for 
several years, a sort of beggar about the court of Tiberius Caesar, 
through whose favor he hoped for an advancement to some one of 
the thrones in Palestine, which seemed to be prizes for any of 
Herod's numerous descendents who could best secure the imperial 
favor, and depress the possessors in the Caesar's opinion. Passing 
at Rome and elsewhere through a romantic variety of fortune, this 
adventurer was at last lucky in securing to himself the most 
friendly regard of Caius Caesar, then the expected successor of 
the reigning emperor. This afterwards proved the basis of his 
fortunes, which, for a while, however, were darkened by the con- 
sequences of an imprudent remark made to Caius, expressive of a 
wish for the death of Tiberius, which was reported to the jealous 
tyrant by a listening slave, and finally caused the speaker's close 
imprisonment during the rest of the emperor's life. The death 
of Tiberius, followed by the accession of Caius Caesar to the 
throne, raised Agrippa from his chains to freedom, and to the most 
intimate favor of the new monarch. The tetrarchy of Iturea and 
Trachonitis, then vacant by the death of Philip, was immediately 
conferred on him ; and soon after, Herod Antipas having been ex- 
iled, his territories, Galilee and Peraea, were added to the former 
dominions of Herod Agrippa, and with them was granted to him 
the title of king, which had never yet been given to any of the 
descendents of Herod the Great. In this state were the govern- 
ments of these countries at the time of the events last narrated ; 
but Herod Agrippa, often visiting Rome, left all Palestine in the 
hands of Publius Petronius, the just and benevolent Roman pre- 
sident of Syria. In this state affairs remained during all the 
short reign of Caius Caligula Caesar, who, after four years mostly 
characterized by folly, vice, and cruelty, ended his days by the 
daggers of assassins. But this great event proved no check to the 
flourishing fortunes of his favorite, king Herod Agrippa ; who, in 
the course of the events which ended in placing Claudius on the 

28 



204 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

throne, so distinguished himself in the preliminary negociations 
between the new emperor and the senate, sharing as he did the 
confidence and regard of both parties, that he was justly considered 
by all, as the most active means of effecting the comfortable set- 
tlement of their difficulties ; and he was therefore deemed well 
deserving of the highest rewards. Accordingly, the first act of 
Claudius's government, like the first of Caligula's, was the pre- 
sentation of a new kingdom to this favorite of fortune, — Judea 
being now added to the other countries in his possession ; and 
thus was all Palestine brought into one noble kingdom, beneath his 
extensive sway. With a dominion comprising all that the policy of 
his grandfather had been able to attain during a very long and active 
life, he now found himself, at the age of fifty-one, one of the most 
extraordinary instances of romantic fortune that had ever occurred ; 
and anxious to enjoy something of the solid pleasure of visiting 
and governing his great and flourishing kingdom, he set sail from 
Rome, which had so long been to him the scene of such varied 
fortune, such calamitous poverty and tedious imprisonment, — and 
now proceeded as the proud king of Palestine, going home in tri- 
umph to the throne of his ancestor, supported by the most bound- 
less pledges of imperial favor. The emperor Claudius, though 
regretting exceedingly the departure of the tried friend whom he 
had so much reason to love and cherish, yet would not detain him 
from a happiness so noble and desirable as that of arranging and 
ruling his consolidated dominion. Even his departure, however, 
was made the occasion of new marks of imperial favor ; for Clau- 
dius gave him letters by which all Roman governors were bound 
to acknowledge and support him as the rightful sovran of Pa- 
lestine. He arrived in Palestine shortly after ; and just before the 
passover, made his appearance in Jerusalem, where he was re- 
ceived with joy and hope by the expecting people, who hailed 
with open hearts a king whose interests would be identified with 
theirs, and with the glory of the Jewish name. His high and 
royal race, — his own personal misfortunes, and the unhappy fate of 
his early-murdered father, as well as his descent from the lamented 
Mariamne, — his well known amiability of character, and his regard 
for the holy Jewish faith, which he had shown by exerting and 
even risking all his favor with Caligula to prevent, in co-operation 
with the amiable Petronius, the profanation of the temple as pro- 
posed by the erection of the emperor's statue within it, — all served 
to throw a most attractive interest around him, and to excite bril- 



peter's apostleship. 205 

liant hopes, which his first acts immediately more than justified. 
The temple, though now so resplendent with the highest achiev- 
ments of art, and though so vast in its foundations and dimen- 
sions, was still considered as having some deficiencies, so great, 
that nothing but royal munificence could supply them. The Jews 
therefore seized the fortunate occasion of the accession of their 
new and amiable monarch to his throne, to obtain the perfection 
of a work on which the hearts of the people were so much set, 
and the completion of which would so highly advance the monarch 
in the popular favor. The king at once benignantly heard their 
request, and gladly availing himself of this opportunity to gratify 
his subjects, and secure a regard from them which might some 
day be an advantage to him, immediately ordered the great work 
to proceed at his expense. The satisfaction of the people and the 
Sanhedrim was now at the highest pitch ; and, emboldened by 
these displays of royal favor, some of the sage plotters among 
them hoped to obtain from him a favorable hearing on a matter 
which they deemed of still deeper importance to their religion, 
and in which his support was equally indispensable. This matter 
brings back the forsaken apostolic narrative to a more direct con- 
sideration. 

Hero A Agrippa. — All the interesting details of this richly romantic life, are given 
in a most delightful style by Josephus. (Ant. XVIII. v. 3, — viii. 9, and XIX. i. — ix.) 
The same is more concisely given by the same author in another place. (War. II. 
ix. 5, — xi. 6.) The prominent events of Petronius's administration are also given in 
the former. The name " Herod" is nowhere applied to this king, except in the Acts 
of the Apostles. Josephus uniformly calls him " Agrippa" merely, and never men- 
tions that the name " Herod" was ever given to him; — perhaps, because he wished 
to avoid a confusion of names in giving the history of so many Herods. 

THE PEACEFUL PROGRESS OF THE FAITH. 

The apostles, after the great events last narrated, gave them- 
selves with new zeal to the work which was now so vastly ex- 
tended by the opening of the wide field of the Gentiles. Others 
of the refugees from the popular rage, at the time of Stephen's 
murder, had gone even beyond the boundaries of Palestine, bring- 
ing into the sphere of apostolic operations a great number of in- 
teresting subjects, before unthought of. Some of the bold, free 
workers, who had heard of the late changes in the views of the 
apostles, respecting the characters of those for whom the gospel 
was designed, now no longer limited their efforts of love to the 
children of the stock of Abraham, but proclaimed the faith of 
Jesus to those who had before never heard his name. The gospel 



206 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

was thus carried into Syria and CypruSj and thence rapidly spread 
into many other countries, where Macedonian conquest and Hel- 
lenic colonization had made the Greek the language of cities, 
courts, commerce, and, to a great extent, of literature. The great 
city of Antioch soon became a sort of metropolis of the numerous 
churches, which sprang up in that region, beyond the immediate 
reach of Jerusalem, now the common home of the apostles, and 
the centre of the Christian, as of the Jewish faith. Grecians as 
well as Jews, in this new march of the gospel, were made sharers 
in its blessings ; and the multiplication of converts among them 
was so rapid as to give a new importance, at once, to this sort of 
Christians. The communication of these events to the apostles at 
Jerusalem, called for some systematic action on their part, to con- 
firm and complete the good work thus begun by the random and 
occasional efforts of mere wandering fugitives from persecution. 
They accordingly selected persons especially fitted for this field of 
labor, and despatched them to Antioch, to fulfil the duties imposed 
on the apostles in reference to this new opening. The details of 
the operations of these new laborers, will be given in their lives 
hereafter. 

In performing the various offices required in their domestic and 
foreign fields of labor, now daily multiplying, Peter and his asso- 
ciates had continued for several years steadily occupied, but 
achieving no particular action that has received notice in the his- 
tory of their acts ; so that the most of this part of their lives re- 
mains a blank to the modern investigator. All that is known, is 
that between the churches of Syria and Palestine there was estab- 
lished a frequent friendly intercourse, more particularly between 
the metropolitan churches of Jerusalem and Antioch. From the 
former went forth preachers to instruct and confirm the new and 
untaught converts of the latter, who had been so lately stran- 
gers to God's covenant of promise with his people ; while from 
the thriving and benevolent disciples of Antioch were sent back, 
in grateful recompense, the free offerings of such aid as the pre- 
valence of a general dearth made necessary for the support of their 
poor and friendless brethren in Jerusalem ; and the very men who 
had been first sent to Antioch with the commission to build up and 
strengthen that infant church, now returned to the mother church 
at Jerusalem, with the generous relief which gratitude prompted 
these new sons to render to the authors of their faith. 



207 



ROMAN TOLERANCE. 

These events and the occasion of them occurred in the reign of 
Claudius Caesar, as Luke particularly records, — thus marking the 
lapse of time during the unregistered period of the apostolic acts, 
which is also confirmed by the circumstances of Herod Agrippa's 
reign, mentioned immediately after, as occurring " about that 
time ;" for, as has been specified above, Herod Agrippa did not rule 
Judea till the reign of Claudius. The crucifixion of Jesus oc- 
curred three years before the death of Tiberius ; and as the whole 
four years of the reign of Caligula was passed over in this space, 
it could not have been less than ten years after the crucifixion, 
when these events took place. This calculation allows time for 
such an advance of the apostolic enterprise, as would, under their 
devoted energy, make the sect most formidable to those who re- 
garded its success as likely to shake the security of the established 
order of religious things, by impairing the popular reverence for 
the regularly constituted heads of Judaism. Such had been its 
progress, and such was the impression made by its advance. There 
could no longer be any doubt as to the prospect of its final ascen- 
dency, if it was quietly left to prosper under the steady and devoted 
labors of its apostles, with all the advantages of the re- action which 
had taken place from the former cruel persecution which they had 
suffered. For several years the government of Palestine had been 
in such hands that the Sanhedrim had few advantages for securing 
the aid of the secular power, in consummating their exterminating 
plans against the growing heresy. Not long after the time of 
Pilate, the government of Judea had been committed by the em- 
peror to Publius Petronius,. the president of Syria, a man who, on 
the valuable testimony of Josephus, appears to have been of the 
most amiable and upright character, — wholly devoted to the pro- 
motion of the real interests of the people whom he ruled. On 
several occasions, he distinguished himself by his tenderness 
towards the peculiarly delicate religious feelings of the Jews, and 
once even risked and incurred the wrath of the vindictive Caligula, 
by disobeying his commands to profane the temple at Jerusalem 
by the erection of that emperor's statue within its holy courts, — a 
violation of the purity of the place, which had been suggested to 
his tyrannical caprice by the spiteful hint of Apion, of Alexandria. 
But though Petronius, in this matter, showed a disposition to 
incur every hazard, to spare the national and devotional feelings 



208 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

of the Jews so awful an infliction, there is nothing in his conduct 
which would lead us to suppose that he would sacrifice justice to 
the gratification of the persecuting malice of the Jews, any more 
than to the imperious tyranny of Caligula. The fairest conclu- 
sion from the events of his administration, is, that he regulated his 
behavior uniformly by his own sense of justice, with hardly any 
reference to the wild impulses, either of popular or imperial 
tyranny. A noble personification of independent and invincible 
justice ! but one not beyond the range of the moral conceptions of a 
Roman, even under the corrupt and corrupting rule of the Caesars ; 
— for thus wrote the great moral poet of the Augustan age, though 
breathing the enervating air of a servile court, and living on the 
favor of a monarch who exacted from his courtiers a reverence 
truly idolatrous : 

Justum et tenacem propositi virum, 
Non civiiim ardor prava jubentium, 
Non vultus instantis tyranni 
Mente quatit solida. * * * 

The moral energy of the Roman character made the exempli- 
fications of this fair ideal not uncommon, even in these latter days 
of Roman glory. There were some like Petronius, who gave life 
and reality to this poetical conception of Horace, — " A man, just 
and resolute, unshaken from his firm purpose alike by the perverse 
dictates of popular rage and by the frown of an overbearing tyrant." 
And these were among the chief blessings of the Roman sway, to 
those lands in which it ruled, — that the great interests of a coun- 
try were not subjected to the blind movements of a perverse public 
opinion, changing with every year, and frustrating every good 
which required a steady policy for its accomplishment, — that the 
majority of the people were not allowed to tyrannize over the 
minority, nor the minority over the majority, — and that a mighty 
power, amenable to neither, but whose interest and glory would 
always coincide with the good of the whole, held over all a do- 
minion unchecked by the demands of popular caprice. But alas ! 
for the imperfections of all human systems ; — among the curses of 
that Roman sway, must be numbered its liability to fall from the 
hands of the wise and the amiable, into those of the stupid and 
brutal ; changes which but too often occurred, overturning, by the 
mismanagement of a moment, the results of years of benevolent 
and prudent policy. And in this very case, all the benefits of Pe- 
tronius's equitable and considerate rule, were utterly neutralized 
and annihilated by the foolishness or brutality of his successors, 



peter's apostleship. 209 

(after Agrippa,) till the provoked irritability of the nation at last 
broke out with a fierceness that for a time overcame the securities 
even of Roman dominion, and was finally quieted only in the utter 
ruin of the whole Jewish nation. But during the period of several 
years following the exit of Pilate, its beneficial energy was felt in 
the quiet tolerance of religious opinion, which he enforced on all, 
and which was most highly advantageous to the progress of the 
doctrine of Christ. To this circumstance may justly be referred 
that remarkable repose enjoyed by the apostles and their follow- 
ers, from all interference with their labors by the Roman govern- 
ment. The death of Jesus Christ himself, indeed, was the only 
act in which the civil power had interfered at all ! for the murder 
of Stephen was a mere freak of mob-violence, a mere Lynch-law 
proceeding, which the Roman governor would not have sanctioned, 
if it had been brought under his cognizance, being done as it was, 
so directly in the face of those principles of religious tolerance 
which the policy of the empire enforced everywhere, excepting 
cases in which sedition and rebellion against their dominion was 
combined with religious zealotism, like the instances of the Gau- 
lanitish Judas, Theudas, and others. Even Jesus himself was 
thus accused by the Jews, and was condemned by Pilate for his 
alleged endeavors to excite a revolt against Caesar, and opposing 
the payment of the Roman taxes, — as is shown by the statement 
of all the evangelists, and more particularly by Pilate's inscription 
on the cross. The persecution which followed the murder of 
Stephen was not carried on under the sanction of the Roman go- 
vernment, nor yet was it against their authority ; for they permit- 
ted to the Sanhedrim the punishment of most minor offences, so 
long as they did not go beyond imprisonment, scourging, banish- 
ment, &c. But the punishment of death was entirely reserved to 
the civil and military power ; and if the Jewish magnates had 
ever formally transgressed this limitation, they would have been 
instantly punished for it, as a treasonable assumption of that 
supreme power which their conquerors were determined to guard 
with the most watchful jealousy. The Sanhedrim, being thus 
restricted in their means of vengeance, were driven to the low 
expedient of stirring up the lawless mob to the execution of these 
deeds of desperate violence, which their religious rulers could 
wink at, and yet were prepared to disown, when questioned by the 
Romans, as mere popular ferments, over which they had no con- 
trol whatever. So they managed with Stephen ; for his murder 



210 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

was no doubt preconcerted among the chief men, who caused the 
formal preamble of a trial, with the design of provoking the mob, 
in some way, to this act ; in which scheme they were too much 
favored by the fiery spirit of the martyr himself, who had not pa- 
tience enough with their bigotry to conceal his abhorrence of it. 
Their subsequent systematic and avowed acts of violence, it should 
be observed, were all kept strictly within the well-defined limits of 
their penal jurisdiction ; for there is no evidence whatever that any 
of the persecuted Hellenists ever suffered death by the condemna- 
tion of the Sanhedrim, or by the sentence of a Roman tribunal. 
The progress of these events, however, showed that this irritating 
and harassing system of whippings, imprisonments, and banish- 
ments, had a tendency rather to excite the energies of these de- 
voted heretics, than to check or crush their spirit of innovation 
and denunciation. Among the numerous instances of malignant 
assault on the personal rights of these sufferers, and the cruel vio- 
lation of the delicacy due to the weaker sex, there must have been, 
also, many occasions in which the ever-varying feelings of the 
public would be moved to deep sympathy with sufferers who bore, 
so steadily and heroically, punishments manifestly disproportioned 
to the offense with which they were charged. — a sympathy which 
might finally rise to a high and resistless indignation against their 
remorseless oppressors. It is probable, therefore, that this perse- 
cution was at last allayed by other causes than the mere defection 
of its most zealous agent. The conviction must have been forced 
on the minds of the persecutors, that this system, with all its paltry 
and vexatious details, must be given up, or exchanged for one 
whose operations should be so vast and sweeping in its desolating 
vengeance, as to overawe and appal, rather than awaken zeal in 
the objects of the punishment, or sympathy in the beholders. The 
latter alternative, however, was too hopeless, under the steady, be- 
nignant sway of Petronius, to be calculated upon, until a change 
should take place which should give the country a ruler of less 
independent and scrupulous character, and more disposed to sacri- 
fice his own moral sense to the attainment of favor with the most 
important subjects of his government. Until that desirable end 
should be attained, in the course of the frequent changes of the 
imperial succession, it seemed best to let matters take their own 
course ; and they accordingly dropped all active proceedings, 
leaving the new sect to progress as it might, with the impulse 
gained from the re-action consequent on this late unfortunate ex- 



211 

citement against it. But they still kept a watchful eye on their 
proceedings, though with hands for a while powerless, and trea- 
sured up accumulating hatred through tedious years, for the 
day when the progress of political changes should bring the secu- 
lar power beneath their influence, and make it subservient to their 
purpose of dreadful vengeance. That day had now fully come. 

Ten years. — This piece of chronology is thus settled. Jesus Christ, according to 
all common calculation, was crucified as early as the twentieth year of the reign of 
Tiberius. Irenaeus maintains that it was in the fifteenth of that reign. Eusebius 
and Epiphanius fix it in the eighteenth, or, according to Petavius's explanation of 
their meaning, in the seventeenth of his actual reign. Tertullian, Julius Africanus, 
Jerome, and Augustin, put it in the sixteenth. Roger Bacon, Paulus Burgensis, and 
Tostatus, also support this date, on the ground of an astronomical calculation of the 
course of the moon, fixing the time when the passover must have occurred, so as to 
accord with the requirement of the Mosaic law, that it should be celebrated on a full 
moon. (But Kepler has abundantly shown the fallacy of this calculation.) Antony 
Pagi, also, though rejecting this astronomical basis, adheres to the opinion of Ter- 
tullian, Jerome, &c. Baronius fixes it in the nineteenth of Tiberius. Pearson, L. 
Cappel, Spanheim, and "Witsius, with the majority of the moderns, in the twentieth 
of Tiberius. So that the unanimous result of all these great authorities, places it as 
early as this last mentioned year. — A full and highly satisfactory view of these ancient 
chronological points and opinions, is given by the deeply learned Antony Pagi, in his 
great " Critica Historico-Chronologica in Annales Baronii." (Saecul. I. Ann. Per. 
Ger.-Rom. 5525. Ann. Ch. 32. IT 3 — 13.) The more modern authorities here quoted, 
are summarily given by Witsius. (Meletemata Leidensia. Vit. Paul. II. 22, p. 34.) 

Now, from Josephus, it is perfectly evident that Agrippa did not leave Rome until 
some time after the beginning of the reign of Claudius, and it is probable not before 
the close of the first year. Counting backwards through the four years of Caligula, 
this makes five years after the death of Tiberius, and eight on the latest calculation 
from the death of Christ ; while, according to the higher and earlier authority, it 
amounts to nine, ten, eleven, or to twelve years from the crucifixion to Agrippa's arrival 
in Judea. And moreover, it is not probable that the persecution referred to occurred 
immediately on his arrival. Indeed, from the close way in which Luke connects 
Agrippa's death with the preceding events, it would seem as if he" would fix his 
" going down from Jerusalem to Caesarea," and his death at the latter place, very 
soon after the escape of Peter. This, of course, being in the end of Claudius's third 
year, brings the' events above mentioned down to the eleventh or twelfth from the cru- 
cifixion, even according to the latest conjecture as to the date of that event. Probably, 
however, the connexion of the two events was not as close as a common reading of 
the Acts would lead one to suppose. — So also Lardner, in his Life of Peter, says, — 
" The death of Herod Agrippa happened before the end of that year," in which he 
escaped. (Lardner's Works, 4to. Vol. III. p. 402, bottom.) — Natalis Alexander fixes 
Peter's escape in the second year of Claudius, and the forty '-fourth from Christ's birth, 
which is, according to his computation, the tenth from his death. (Hist. Eccles. 
Saec. 1, Cap. vi. in Vol. I. p. 20.) 

The date of Peter's escape, according to the most reasonable and approved chro- 
nology, (that of Pagi,) must therefore be fixed in March, of the year of Christ 42. 

No evidence that any suffered death. The words of Paul, (Acts xxvi. 10,) — " when 
they were put to death, I gave my voice against them," — are supposed by some to 
conflict with the view here taken ; but the plural expression in that passage is, by 
critics of the highest authority, considered as having truly only the force of a singu- 
lar, — a construction which, though apparently strange, is yet warranted by the undis- 
puted rendering of very many passages in the New Testament. Thus in Matt. ix. 8, 
the last word, though plural, can refer to only one person. In Matt. xxi. 7, it is said 
in the original, that " they set him on them;" which palpably means only one of the 
animals. In Matt, xxvii. 44, the plural " thieves" can not be literally true according 
to the parallel passage in Luke xxiii. 39, 40. So in Heb. xi. 33, 37, the expressions 
" stopped the mouths of lions," " were sawn asunder," are (in the original) in the 
plural form ; yet each, of course, can refer but to one person, — the first to Daniel, and 
the second to Isaiah. The true force of this form of expression is thus maintained 



212 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

and strongly insisted* on by Grotius, Estius, Lucas Brugensis, Witsius, Poole, 
Doddridge, and Kuinoel. The three last, Poole and Kuinoe) especially, (on Acts 
xxvi. 10,) may be referred to for the fullest defense of this view. Witsius (Vita 
Pauli. I. 17, p. 16) also very decidedly maintains this ground. 

peter's threatened martyrdom. 
The long-expected favorite and friend of the Jewish people, 
having been thus hailed sovran by their grateful voices, and 
having strengthened his throne and influence by his opening acts 
of liberality and devotion to the national faith, now entered upon 
a reign which presented only the portents of a course most auspi- 
cious to his own fame and his people's good. Uniting in his person 
the claims of the Herodian and Asamonean lines. — with the blood 
of the heroic Maccabees in his veins, — crowned by the imperial 
lord of the civilized world, whose boundless power was pledged 
in his support, by the obligations of an intimate personal friendship, 
and of a sincere gratitude for the attainment of the throne of the 
Caesars through his prompt and steady exertions, — received with 
universal joy and hope by all the dwellers of the consolidated 
kingdoms of his dominion, which had been long thriving under 
the mild and equitable administration of a prudent governor, — 
there seemed nothing wanting to complete the happy auspices of 
a glorious reign, under which the ancient honors of Israel should 
be more than retrieved from the decline of ages. Yet what avails 
the bright array of happily conspiring circumstances, to prince or 
people, against the awful majesty of divine truth, or the pure, 
simple energy of human devotion ? Within the obscurer corners of 
his vast territories, — creeping for room under the outermost colon- 
nades of that mighty temple whose glories he had pledged himself 
to renew, — wandering like outcasts from place to place, — seeking 
supporters only among the unintellectual mass of the people, — were 
a set of men of whom he probably had not heard until he entered 
his own dominions. They were now suggested to his notice for 
the first time, by the decided voice of censure from the devout and 
learned guardians of the purity of the law of God, who invoked 
the aid of his sovran power, to check and utterly uproot this 
heresy, which the unseasonable tolerance of Roman government 
had too long shielded from the just visitations of judicial vengeance. 
Nor did the royal Agrippa hesitate to gratify, in this slight and 
reasonable matter, the express wishes of the reverend heads of the 
Jewish faith and law. Ah ! how little did he think, that in that 
trifling movement was bound up the destiny of ages, and that its 
results would send his name — though then so loved and honored — 



213 

like Pharaoh's, down to all time, a theme of religious horror and 
holy hatred, to the unnumbered millions of a thousand races and 
lands then unknown ; — an awful doom, from which one act of 
benign protection, or of prudent kindness, to that feeble band of 
hated, outcast innovators, might have retrieved his fame, and canon- 
ized it in the faithful memory of the just, till the glory of the old 
patriarchs and prophets should grow dim. But, without one 
thought of consequences, a prophetic revelation of which would 
so have appalled him, he unhesitatingly stretched out his arm in 
vindictive cruelty over the church of Christ, for the gratification 
of those whose praise was to him more than the favor of God. 
Singling out first the person whom momentary circumstances 
might render most prominent or obnoxious to censure, he at once 
doomed to a bloody death the elder son of Zebedeej the second of 
the great apostolic three. No sooner was this cruel sentence 
executed, than, with a most remarkable steadiness in the execution 
of his bloody plan, he followed up this action, so pleasing to the 
Jews, by another similar movement. Peter, the active leader of 
the heretical host, ever foremost in braving the authority of the 
constituted teachers of the law, and in exciting commotion and 
dissatisfaction among the commonalty, was now seized by a mili- 
tary force, too strong to fear any resistence from popular move- 
ments, which had so much deterred the Sanhedrim. This occurred 
during the week of the passover ; and such was king Agrippa's 
profound regard for all things connected with his national religion, 
that he would not violate the sanctity of this holy festival by the 
execution of a criminal, however deserving of vengeance he might 
seem in that instance. The fate of Peter being thus delayed, he 
was therefore committed to prison, (probably in Castle Antonia,) 
and to prevent all possibility of his finding means to escape pre- 
pared ruin again, he was confined under the charge of sixteen Roman 
soldiers, divided into four sets, of four men each, who were to keep 
him under constant supervision day and night, by taking turns, 
each set an equal time ; and according to the established principles 
of the Roman military discipline, with the perfect understanding 
that if, on the conclusion of the passover, the prisoner was not 
forthcoming, the guards should answer the failure with their lives. 
These decided and careful arrangements being made, the king, 
with his gratified friends in the Sanhedrim and among the rabble, 
gave themselves up to the enjoyment of the great national festival, 
with a peculiar zest, hightened by the near prospect of the utter 



214 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

overthrow of the advancing heresy, by the sweeping blow that 
robbed them of their two great leaders, and more especially of him 
who had been so active in mischievous attempts to perpetuate the 
memory of the original founder of the sect, and to frustrate the 
good effect of his bloody execution, by giving out that the cruci- 
fied Jesus still lived, and would yet come in vengeance on his 
murderers. While such triumphant thoughts swelled the festal 
enjoyments of the powerful foes of Christ, the unhappy company 
of his persecuted disciples passed through this anniversary-week 
with the most mournful reminiscences and anticipations. Ten 
years before, in unutterable agony and despair, they had parted, as 
they then supposed, forever, with their beloved Lord ; and now, 
after years of devotion to the work for which he had commissioned 
them, they were called to renew the deep sorrows of that parting, 
in the removal of those who had been foremost among them in the 
great work, cheering them and leading them on through toil and 
peril, with a spirit truly holy, and with a fearless energy, kindred 
with that of their divine Lord. Of these two divinely appointed 
chiefs, one had already poured out his blood beneath the execu- 
tioner's sword ; and the other, their great leader, the Rock of the 
church, was now only waiting the speedy close of the festal week, 
to crown his glorious course, and his enemies' cruel policy, by the 
same bloody doom ; meanwhile held in the safe keeping of an 
ever-watchful Roman guard, forbidding even the wildest hope of 
escape. Yet why should they wholly despair ? On that passover, 
ten years before, how far more gloomy and hopeless the glance 
they threw on the cross of their Lord ! Yet from that doubly 
hopeless darkness, what glorious light sprang up to them ! And 
was the hand that then broke through the bands of death and the 
gates of Hades, now so shortened that it could not sever the vile 
chains of paltry tyranny which confined this faithful apostle, nor 
open wide the guarded gates of his castle prison ? Surely there 
was still hope for faith which had been taught such lessons of un- 
doubting trust in God. Nor were they thoughtless of the firm 
support and high consolations which their experience afforded. 
In prayer, intense and unceasing, they poured out their souls in 
sympathetic grief and supplication, for the relief of their great elder 
brother from his deadly peril; and in sorrowful entreaty the whole 
church continued day and night for the safety of Peter. 

Castle Antonia.— For Josephus's account of the position and erection of this 
work, see my note on page 111. There has been much speculation about the place 



peter's apostleship. 215 

of the prison to which Peter was committed. The sacred text (Acts xii. 10) makes 
it plain that it was without the city itself, since after leaving the prison it was still 
necessary to enter the city by " the iron gate." Walch, Kuinoel, and Bloomfield 
adopt the view that it was in one of the towers or castles that fortified the walls. Wolf 
and others object to the view that it was without the walls ; because, as Wolf says, 
it was not customary to have public prisons outside of the cities, since the prisoners 
might in that case be sometimes rescued by a bold assault from some hardy band of 
comrades, &c. But this objection is worth nothing against Castle Antonia, which, 
though it stood entirely separated from the rest of the city, was vastly strong, and, by 
its position as well as fortification, impregnable to any common force; — a circum- 
stance which would at once suggest and recommend it as a secure place for one who, 
like Peter, had escaped once from the common prison. There was always a Roman 
garrison in Antonia. (Jos. War, V. v. 8.) 

Baronius, in connexion with this passage, suggests the castle of Antonia as the 
most probable place of Peter's confinement. " Juxta templum fortasse in ea munitis- 
sima turri quae dicebatur Antonia." (Bar. Annal. Ecc. A. C. 44, § 5.) A conjecture 
which certainly adds some weight to my own supposition to that effect ; although I 
did not discover the coincidence in time to mention it in this place in my first edition. 

In the steady contemplation of the nearness of his bloody doom, 
the great apostle remained throughout the passover, shut out from 
all the consolations of fraternal sympathy, and awaiting the end of 
the few hours which were still allotted by the religious scruples of 
his mighty sovran. In his high and towering prison in Castle 
Antonia, parted only by a deep, broad rift in the precipitous rocks, 
from the great terraces of the temple itself, whose thronged courts 
now rung with the thanksgiving songs of a rejoicing nation, he 
heard them, sending up in thousands of voices the praise of their 
fathers' God, who still remembered Israel in mercy, renewing their 
ancient glories under the bright and peaceful dominion of their 
new-crowned king. And with the anthems of praise to God, 
which sounded along the courts and porches of the temple, were 
no doubt heard, too, the thanks of many a grateful Hebrew for 
the goodness of the generous king, who had pledged his royal 
word to complete the noble plan of that holy pile, as suited the 
splendid conceptions of the founder. And this was the king whose 
decree had doomed that lonely and desolate prisoner in the castle, 
to a bloody and shameful death, — as a crowning offering at the 
close of the great festival ; and how few among that vast throng, 
before whose eyes he was to yield his life, would repine at the 
sentence that dealt exterminating vengeance on the obstinately 
heretical preacher of the crucified Nazarene's faith ! Well might 
such dark visions of threatening ruin appal a heart whose enthu- 
siasm had caught its flame from the unholy fires of worldly ambi- 
tion, or devoted its energies to the low purpose of human ascen- 
dency. And truly sad would have been the lonely thoughts of 
this very apostle, if this doom had found him in the spirit which 
first moved him to devote himself to the cause which now required 



216 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the sacrifice of life. But higher hopes and feelings had inspired 
his devoted exertions for ten years ; and higher far, the consola- 
tions which now sustained him in his friendless desolation. This 
very fate, he had long been accustomed to regard as the earthly 
meed of his labors ; and he had too often been threatened with it, 
to be overwhelmed by its near prospect. Vain, then, were all 
solemn details of that awful sentence, to strike terror into his fixed 
soul, — vain the dark sureties of the high, steep rock, the massive, 
lofty walls, the iron gates, the ever-watchful Roman guards, the 
fetters and manacles, to control or check the 

" Eternal spirit of the chainless mind ! — 

Brightest in dungeons, Liberty ! thou art, 
For there thy habitation is the heart." 

Thus sublimely calm, sat Peter in his prison, waiting for death. 
Day after day, all day long, the joyous feast went on beneath him ; 
— the offering, the prayer, and the hymn, varying the mighty 
course, from the earliest morning supplication to the great evening 
sacrifice. Up rolled the glorious symphony of the Levites' thou- 
sand horns, and the choral harmony of their chanting voices, — up 
rolled the clouds of precious incense to the skiey throne of Israel's 
God, — and with this music and fragrance, up rolled the prayers 
of Israel's worshiping children ; but though the glorious sound and 
odor fell delightfully on the senses of the lonely captive, as they 
passed upwards by his high prison-tower, no voice of mercy came 
from below to cheer him in his desolation. But from above, from 
the heaven to which all these prayer-bearing floods of incense and 
harmony ascended, came down divine consolation and miraculous 
delivery to this poor, despised prisoner, with a power and a wit- 
ness that not all the solenm pomp of the passover ceremony could 
summon, in reply to its costly offerings. The feeble band of sor- 
rowing Nazarenes, from their little chamber, were lifting unceasing 
voices of supplication for their brother in his desperate prospects, 
— which entered with his solitary prayer into the ears of the God 
of Hosts, while the ostentatious worship of king Agrippa and his 
reverend supporters, only brought back shame and woful ruin on 
their impious supplications for the divine sanction to their bloody 
plans of persecution. At length the solemn passover-rites of " the 
last great day of the feast" were ended ; — the sacrifice, the incense, 
and the song rose no more from the sanctuary, — the fires on the 
altars went out, the hum and the roar of worshiping voices was 
hushed, and the departing throngs poured through the " eter- 



peter's apostleship. 217 

nal" and the " beautiful" gates, till at last the courts and porches 
of the temple were empty through all their vast extent, and hushed 
in a silence deep as the ruinous oblivion to which the voice of 
their God had doomed them shortly to pass : and all was still, save 
where the footfall of the passing priest echoed along the empty 
colonnades, as he hurried over the vast pavements into the dormi- 
tories of the inner temple ; or where the mighty gates thundered 
awfully as they swung heavily together under the strong hands of 
the weary Levites, and sent their hollow echoes in long reverbe- 
rations among the walls. Even these closing sounds soon ceased 
also ; the Levite watchmen took their stand on the towers of the 
temple, and paced their nightly rounds along its dark courts, guard- 
ing with careful eyes their holy shrine, lest the impious should, 
under cover of night, again profane it, (as the Samaritans had 
secretly done a few years before.) And on the neighboring castle 
of Antonia, the Roman garrison too had set their nightly watch, 
and the iron warriors slumbered, each in his turn, till the round 
of duty should summon him to relieve guard. Within the dun- 
geon-keep of the castle, was still safely held the weighty trust that 
was to be answered for, on peril of life ; and all arrangements were 
made which so great a responsibility seemed to require. The 
quaternion on duty was divided into two portions ; each half being 
so disposed and posted as to effect the most complete supervision 
of which the place was capable, — two men keeping watch outside 
of the well-bolted door of the cell, and two within, — who, not 
limited to the charge of merely keeping their eyes on the prisoner, 
had him fastened to their bodies by a chain on each side. In this 
neighborly proximity to his rough companions, Peter was in the 
habit of passing the night ; but in the daytime was freed from one 
of these chains, remaining attached to only one soldier ; — an ar- 
rangement in accordance with the standard mode of guarding im- 
portant state-prisoners among the Romans. All these strong 
securities being fixed on the prisoner, for the night, and the watch 
being set, the armed personal guards of Peter gave themselves 
without scruple to repose, and stretched themselves out in heavy, 
tranquil slumber. Circumstanced as he was, Peter had nothing 
to do but to conform to their example, for the nature of his attach- 
ment to them was such, that he had no room for the indulgence 
of his own fancies about his position ; and he also lay down to 
repose. He slept. The sickening and feverish confinement of 
his close dungeon had not yet so broken his firm and vigorous 






218 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

frame, nor so drained its energies, as to hinder the placid enjoy- 
ment of repose ; nor did the certainty of a cruel and shameful 
death, to which he was within a few hours to be dragged, before 
the eyes of a scoffing rabble, move his high spirit from its self- 
possession : — 

" and still he slumbered, 
"While in" decree, his hours " were numbered." 

He slept. And from that dark prison-bed, what visions could be- 
guile his slumbering thoughts ? Did fancy bear them back against 
the tide of time, to the humble, peaceful home of his early days, 
— to the varied scenes of the lake whereon he loved to dwell, and 
along whose changeful waters he had learned so many lessons of 
immortal faith and untrembling hope in his Lord? Amid the 
stormy roar of its dark waters, the voice of that Lord once called 
him to tempt the raging deep with his steady foot ; and when 
his feeble faith, before untried, failed him in the terrors of the 
effort, His supporting hand recalled him to strength and safety. 
And had that lesson of faith and hope been so poorly learned, that 
in this dark hour he could draw no consolation from such remem- 
brances? No. He could even now find that consolation, and he 
did. In the midst of this " sea of troubles," he felt the same mighty 
arm now upholding him. that bore him above the waters, " when 
the blue wave rolled nightly on deep Galilee." Again he had 
stood by those waters, swelling brightly in the fresh morning 
breeze, with his risen Lord beside him, and received the solemn 
commission, oft-renewed, to feed the flock that was so soon to lose 
the earthly presence of its great Shepherd. In the steady and 
dauntless execution of that parting commission, he had in the 
course of long years gone on in the face of death, — " feeding the 
lambs" of Christ's gathering, and calling vast numbers to the fold ; 
and for the faithful adherence to that command, he now sat wait- 
ing the fulfilment of the doom that was to cut him down in the 
midst of life and in the fullness of his vigor. Yet the nearness 
of this sad reward of his labors, seemingly offering so dreadful an 
interpretation of the mystical prophecy that accompanied that 
charge, moved him to no desperation or distress, and still he calmly 
slept, with as little agitation and dread as at the transfiguration, 
and at the agony of the crucifixion eve ; nor did that compunction 
for heedless inattention, that then hung upon his slumbering senses, 
now disturb him in the least. It is really worth noticing, in jus- 
tice to Peter, that his sleepiness, of which so many curious in- 



219 

stances are presented in the sacred narrative, was not of the 
criminally selfish kind that might be supposed on a partial view. 
If he slept during his Master's prayers on Mount Hermon, and in 
Gethsemane, he slept too in his own condemned cell ; and if in 
his bodily infirmity he had forgotten to watch and pray when 
death threatened his Lord, he was now equally indifferent to his 
own impending destruction. He was evidently a person of inde- 
pendent and regular habits. Brought up a hard-working man, he 
had all his life been accustomed to repose whenever he was at 
leisure, if he needed it ; and now, too, though the " heathen might 
rage, and the people imagine a vain thing, — though the kings of 
the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together" 
against him, and doomed him to a cruel death, — in spite of all 
these Peter would sleep when he was sleepy. Not the royal 
Agrippa could sleep sounder on his pavilioned couch of purple. 
In the calm confidence of one steadily fixed in a high course, and 
perfectly prepared for every and any result, the chained apostle 
gave himself coolly to his natural rest, without borrowing any 
trouble from the thought, that in the morning the bloody sword 
was to lay him in " the sleep that knows no earthly waking." So 
slept the Athenian sage, on the eve of his martyrdom to the cause 
of clearly and boldly spoken truth, — a sleep that so moved the 
wonder of his agonizing disciples, at the power of a good con- 
science and a practical philosophy to sustain the soul against the 
horrors of such distress, — but a sleep not sounder nor sweeter than 
that of the poor Galilean outcast, who, though not knowing even 
the name of philosophy, had a consolation far higher, in the faith 
that his martyred Lord had taught him. in so many experimental 
instructions. That faith, learned by the painful conviction of his 
own weakness, and implanted in him by many a fall when over 
confident in his own strength, was now his stay and comfort ; so 
that he might say to his soul — " Hope thou in God, for I shall yet 
praise him, who is the help of my countenance and my God." 
Nor did that hope prove groundless. From him in whom he 
trusted, came a messenger of deliverance ; and from the depths of 
a danger the most appalling and threatening, he was soon brought, 
to serve that helping-God through many faithful years, feeding the 
flock till, in his old age, ■" another should gird him, and carry him 
whither he would not." He who had prayed for him in the reve- 
lation of his peculiar glories on Mount Hermon, and had so highly 
consecrated him to the great cause, had yet greater things for him 



220 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

to do ; and to new works of love and wonder he now called him, 
from the castle-prison of his royal persecutor. 

Quaternion.— That is. a band of four. See Bloomfield in defense of my mode of 
disposing them about the prison, — also Rosenmuller, &c. Wolf quotes appositely 
from Polybius ; but Kuinoel is richest of all in quotations and illustrations. (Acts 
xii. 4. 5.) 

A chain on each side. — That this was the common mode of fastening such prisoners 
among the Romans, appears from the authorities referred to by Wolf, (Cur. Phil, in 
Acts xii. 6,) Kuinoel and Rosenmuller, (quoting from Walch,) and Bloomfield, all 
in loc. 

THE DELIVERANCE. 

Through the iron gates, the massive walls, and the armed guards 
of Castle Antonia, the seraph of mercy came " to proclaim deliver- 
ance to the captive, and the opening of the prison-doors to the 
bound." From the depths of his sound and calm repose the chained 
apostle was suddenly roused to active sense, by the dazzling and 
awe-inspiring apparition of a divine messenger amid a blaze of 
light that shone through the dungeon, making bright the way of 
deliverance. The overwhelmed and still half-slumbering cap- 
tive was raised from the ground by the unknown power, and after 
a deliberate resumption of dress, was led out of the dungeon, free 
from his fallen fetters, and over the bodies of his unconscious 
guards. The whole scene bore so perfectly the character of one 
of those enchanting dreams of liberty with which painful hope 
often cheats the willing senses of the poor captive in slumber, 
that he might well and wisely doubt the reality of an appearance 
so tempting, and which his wishes would so readily suggest to his 
forgetful spirit. The two passengers soon reached the great iron 
gate of the castle, through which they must pass in order to enter 
the city. But all the seeming difficulties of this passage vanished 
as soon as they approached it. The gate swung its enormous mass 
of metal self-moving through the space, and the half-entranced 
Peter passing on beneath the vacant portal, now stood without the 
castle, once more a free man, in the fresh, open air. The difficul- 
ties and dangers were not all over yet, however. During all the 
great feast-days, when large assemblies of people were gathered at 
Jerusalem from various quarters, to guard against the danger of 
riots and insurrection in these motley throngs, — the armed Roman 
force on duty, as Josephus relates, was doubled and tripled, occu- 
pying several new posts around the temple, and, as the same his- 
torian particularly mentions, on the approaches of Castle Antonia, 
where its foundations descended towards the terraces of the temple, 
and formed a passage to the great eastern colonnades. On all these 



peter's apostleship. 221 

places the guard must have been under arms during this passover, 
and even at night the sentries would be stationed at all the im- 
portant posts, as a reasonable security against the numerous stran- 
gers of a dubious character who now thronged the city throughout. 
Yet all these peculiar precautions, which, at this time, presented 
so many additional difficulties to the escaping apostle, hindered 
him not in the least. Entering the city, he followed the footsteps 
of his blessed guide, unchecked, till they had passed on through 
the first street, when, all at once, without sign or word of farewell, 
the mysterious deliverer vanished, leaving Peter alone in the silent 
city, but free and safe. Then flashed upon his mind the conviction 
of the true character of the apparition. The departure of his 
guide leaving him to seek his own way, his senses were, by the 
necessity of self-direction, recalled from the state of stupefaction 
in which he had mechanically followed on from the prison. With 
the first burst of reflexion, he broke out in the exclamation — " Now 
I know of a truth, that the Lord has sent forth his messenger, 
and has rescued me out of the hand of Herod, in spite of all the 
expectations of the Jewish people." Refreshed and encouraged by 
this impression, he now used his thoroughly awakened senses to 
find his exact situation, and after looking about him, he made his 
way through the dark streets to a place where he knew he should 
find those whose despairing hearts would be inexpressibly rejoiced 
by the news of his deliverance. This was the house of Mary, 
the mother of John Mark, where the disciples were accustomed to 
assemble. Going up to the gateway, he rapped on the door, and 
at once aroused those within ; for in their sleepless distress for the 
imprisoned apostle, several of the brethren had given up all 
thoughts of sleep, and, as Peter had probably suspected, were now 
watching in prayer within this house. After no small delay from 
the overjoyed incredulity both of the lively portress and of the 
assembled brethren, the door of the friendly mansion was opened 
to the liberated apostle, who was received with the delightful re- 
cognitions of all there assembled. Their amazement and joy was 
bursting forth with a vivacity which quite made up for their pre- 
vious incredulity ; when the apostle, making a hushing sign with 
his hand, — with a reasonable fear, no doubt, that their obstreperous 
congratulations might be heard in other houses around, so as to 
alarm the neighbors, and bring out some spiteful Jews, who would 
procure his detection and recapture, — having obtained silence, 
went on to give them a full account of his being brought out of 



222 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

prison by the Lord, and after finishing his wonderful story, said 
to them — " Tell these things to James and the brethren." From 
this it would seem that the apostles were all somewhere else, pro- 
bably having found that a temporary concealment was expedient 
for their safety ; but were still not far from the city. His own per- 
sonal danger was of so imminent a character, however, that Jeru- 
salem could not be a safe place for him during the search that 
would be immediately instituted after him by his disappointed and 
enraged persecutors. It was quite worth while, therefore, for him 
to use the remaining darkness of the night to complete his escape ; 
and without staying to enjoy their outflowing sympathies, he bade 
them a hasty farewell, and as the historian briefly says, went to 
another place. Where this " other place" was, he does not 
pretend to tell or know, and the only certain inference to be drawn 
from the circumstance is, that it was beyond the reach or know- 
ledge of the mighty and far-ruling king, who had taken such par- 
ticular pains to secure Peter's death. The probabilities as to the 
real place of his retirement will, however, be given, as soon as the 
sequel of events in Jerusalem has been narrated, as far as concerns 
the discovery of his escape. 

Blaze of light. — Some commentators have attempted to make out an explanation 
of this phenomenon, by referring the whole affair to the effects of a sudden flash 
and stroke of lightning, falling on the castle, and striking all the keepers senseless, — 
melting Peter's chains, and illuminating the place, so that Peter, unhurt amid the 
general crash, saw this opportunity for escaping, and stepping over their prostrate 
bodies, made his way out of the prison, and was out of sight before they came-to. The 
most important objection to this ingenious speculation is, that it directly contradicts 
every verse in Luke's account of the escape, as well as the general spirit of the nar- 
rative. Another weighty reason is, that the whole series of natural causes and 
effects, proposed as a substitute for the simple meaning, is brought together in such 
forced and uncommon coincidences, as to require a much greater effort of faith and 
credulity for its belief, than the miraculous view, which it quite transcends in incredi- 
bility. The introduction of explanations of miracles by natural phenomena, is jus- 
tifiable only so far as these may illustrate the accompaniments of the event, by show- 
ing the mode in which those things which are actually mentioned as physical results, 
operated in producing the impressions described. Thus, when thunder and light- 
ning are mentioned in connexion with miraculous events, they are to be considered 
as real electrical discharges, made to accompany and manifest the presence of God ; 
and where lambent flames are described as appearing in a storm, they, like the corpos 
santos, are plainly also results of electrical discharges. So, too, when mighty winds 
are mentioned, they are most honestly taken to be real winds, and not deceptive sounds 
or impressions ; and when a cloud is mentioned, it is but fair to consider it a real 
cloud, made up, like all other clouds, of vapor, and not a mere non-entity, or a delu- 
sion existing only in the minds of those who are mentioned as beholding it. And when 
a person is distinctly described as struck blind by a flash of light, followed by a heavy 
sound heard all around, these phenomena, too, so perfectly resemble in character 
and in order the explosion of thunder and lightning, that the most rigid established 
principles of common-sense interpretation allow and justify the belief that, in such 
cases, these natural agencies were the means used for the production of the miracle. 
But where nothing of this kind is spoken of, and where a distinct personal presence 
is plainly declared, the attempt to substitute a physical accident for such an appari- 
tion, is a direct attack on the honesty of the statement. Such attempts, too, are devoid 



223 

of the benefits of such illustrations as I have alluded to as desirable ; they bring in a 
new set of difficulties with them, without removing any of those previously obstruct- 
ing the interpretation of the facts. In this case, the only circumstance which could 
be reasonably made to agree with the idea of lightning, is the mention of the bright 
light ; while throughout the whole account, the presence of a supernatural mysteri- 
ous person, acting and speaking, is perfectly unquestionable. The violation of all 
probability, committed in this forced explanation, will serve as a fair instance of the 
mode in which many modern German critics are in the habit of distorting the simple, 
manifest sense of the sacred writers, for the sake of dispensing with all supernatural 
occurrences. (See Kuinoel for an enlarged view and discussion of this opinion. 
Other views of the nature of the phenomenon are also given by him, and by Rosen- 
muller, on Acts xii. 7.) 

Josephus's description of Castle Antonia is so distinct and graphic, that it will add 
very much to the reader's means of appreciating my narrative ; and I therefore trans- 
late it here entire. " The Antonia was situated at the angle of two of the colonnades 
of the outermost temple, — the western and the northern. It was built upon a rock fifty 
cubits high and precipitous all around. It was the work of king Herod, in which, 
most of all, he showed the magnificent in his genius. In the first place, the rock, 
from its very root, was overlaid with polished slabs of stone, at once for the sake of 
ornament, and that every one attempting either to go up or come down might slip off. 
Then, before the structure of the castle itself, there was a wall three cubits high, 
[a breastwork,] and within this, the whole mass of Antonia rose to the highth of 
forty cubits. The inside had the dimensions and arrangements of a palace ; for 
it was divided into apartments of every form and use, — pillared courts and baths 
and spacious barracks; so that, in having all things that were convenient, it seemed 
to be a city ; while in splendor it seemed a palace. And not only was it shaped 
like a tower in its whole plan, but it was surrounded by four other towers at the 
corners. Of these some were fifty cubits high ; but that which stood at the south- 
east angle of the castle was seventy cubits high ; so that from it the eye could survey 
the whole temple. And where it joined the colonnades of the temple, it had descents 
to both : [that is, staircases descending to both the northern and western colonnades of 
the temple, which it joined;] by which the guards, (for there was always a Roman 
legion in the castle,) passing down and being stationed under arms about the colon- 
nades, on the feast-days, watched the people, lest they should attempt a revolution. 
For the temple stood as the key of the city, and Antonia as that of the temple. In it 
therefore were the guards of all three, while the upper town [Sion, or the southern 
section] had, as its peculiar citadel, the palace of Herod. The hill Bezetha was, as 
I have said, separated from the Antonia; and, being the highest of all, it was built 
out to join the new city, [the northern section of Jerusalem,] and this alone obscured 
the temple on the north." (Josephus, Jewish War, V. v. 8.) A careful comparison 
of this graphic statement with all the minute details of my narrative, will do the best 
justice to the correctness of passages that might otherwise seem purely imaginative. 
The high tower here described as standing at the southeastern angle of the castle, 
and the northwest angle of the temple-courts, being from its highth (eighty-five feet) 
and position the most secure part of the castle, may therefore, very properly, be taken 
as the true dungeon-keep of the Antonia, though not in the centre of that fortress ; 
and this is the particular place that I have somewhat hypothetically taken as the 
prison of Peter. Certainly this castle was the place to which Paul was carried to be 
imprisoned, when he fell into the hands of the same corps of soldiers that constituted 
the guard at this time. (Acts xxi. 34, 37, xxii. 24.) It will be observed that the word 
" castle" (irapE/jiPo^ri, parembole) is applied to the fortress of Antonia by Luke ; and I 
have uniformly used this as the proper term, because, though Josephus calls it nvpyos, 
(purgos,)— commonly translated " tower"— yet his description of the building shows 
it to have been a true castle, consisting of a main fortress, with corner towers, bar- 
bican, and sides inaccessible, except one narrow, steep adit. 

Morning dawned at last upon the towers and temple-columns 
of the Holy City. On the gold-sheeted roofs and snowy-pillared 
colonnades of the house of God, the sunlight poured with a splen- 
dor hardly more glorious than the insupportable brilliancy that 
was sent back from their dazzling surfaces, streaming like a new 



224 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

morning upon the objects around, whose nearer sides would other- 
wise have been left in shade by the eastern rays. Castle Antonia 
shared in this general illumination, and at the first blaze of sun- 
rise, the order of Roman service announced the moment for re- 
lieving guard. The bustle of the movement of the new sentries 
towards their stands, must at last have reached the ears of Peter's 
forsaken companions. Their first waking thoughts would of 
course be on their responsible charge, and they now became for 
the first time aware of the important deficiency. But they had 
not much time to consider their misfortune, or condole upon it ; 
for the change of sentries now brought to the door the quaternion 
whose turn on duty came next. Most uncomfortable must have 
been the aspect of things to the two sentinels who had been keep- 
ing their steady watch outside of the door, and who shared equally 
with the inside keepers, in the undesirable responsibilities of this 
accident. The ludicrous distress and commotion resulting from 
this unpleasant revelation, was evidently well appreciated even by 
the sacred historian, whose brief but pithy expression is not with- 
out a latent comic force. " There was no small stir among the 
soldiers to know what was become of Peter." A general rummage 
into all the holes and corners of the dungeon, of course, ensued; 
and the castle was no doubt ransacked from top to bottom for the 
runaway, whose escape from its massive gates seemed still impos- 
sible. But not even his cloak and sandals, which he had laid 
beside him at the last change of guards, — not a shred, not a thread 
had been left to hint at the mode of his abstraction. 

Baronius, (Ann. Ecc. 44, § 8,) speaking of Peter's escape from his chains, favors 
us with a solemn statement of the important and interesting circumstance, deriving 
the proofs from Metaphrastes, (that prince of fable-mongers, and grand source of 
Romish apostolical tales,) that these very chains of Peter are still preserved at Rome, 
among other venerable relics of equal authenticity; having been faithfully preserved, 
and at last found after the lapse of four hundred years. The veritable history of this 
miraculous preservation, as given by the inventive Metaphrastes, is, that the said 
chains happened to fall into the hands of one of Agrippa's servants, who was a be- 
liever in Christ, and so were handed down for four centuries, and at last brought to 
light. It is lamentable that the list of the various persons through whose hands they 
passed, is not given, though second in importance only to the authentic record of the 
papal succession. This impudent and paltry falsehood will serve as a fair specimen 
of a vast quantity of such stuff', which litters up the pages of even the sober ecclesi- 
astical histories of many papistical writers. The only wonderful thing to me about 
this story is, that Cave has not given it a place in his Lives of the Apostles, which are 
made up with so great a portion of similar trash. 

Meanwhile, with the early day, up rose the royal Agrippa from 
his purple couch, to seize the first moment after the close of the 
passover for the consummation of the doom of the wretched Gali- 
lean, who, by the royal decree, must now yield the life already too 



peter's apostleship. 225 

many days spared, out of delicate scruple about the inviolate purity 
of that holy week. Up rose also the saintly princes of the Judaic 
law, coming forth in their solemn trains, with their broad phylac- 
teries, to grace this most religious occasion with their reverend 
presence, out of respectful gratitude to their great sovran, for his 
considerate disposition to accord the sanction of his absolute secu- 
lar power to their religious sentence. Expectation stood on tiptoe 
for the comfortable spectacle of the streaming life-blood of this 
stubborn leader of the Nazarene heresy ; and nothing was wanting 
to the completion of the ceremony, but the criminal himself. That 
desideratum was, however, not so easily supplied ; for the entrance 
of the delinquent sentinels now presented the non-est-inventus 
return to the solemn summons for the body of their prisoner. 
Confusion thrice confounded now fell on the faces that were just 
shining with anticipated triumph over their hated foe, while secret, 
scornful joy illuminated the countenances of the oppressed friends 
of Jesus. But on the devoted minions of the baffled king, did 
his disappointed vengeance fall most cruelly, in his paroxysm of 
vexation ; and for an event wholly beyond their control, they now 
suffered an undeserved death, — making the only tragical incident 
among the otherwise decidedly gratifying results of Peter's escape. 

agrippa's end. ' 

King Herod Agrippa, after this miserable failure in his attempt 
to " please the Jews," does not seem to have made a very long stay 
in Jerusalem. Before his departure, however, — to secure his own 
solid glory and his kingdom's safety, as well as the favor of his 
subjects, — he not only continued the repairs of the temple, but in- 
stituted such improvements in the fortifications of the city, as, if 
ever completed, would have made it utterly impregnable even to 
a Roman force ; — so that the emperor's jealousy soon compelled 
him to abandon this work. Soon after, he left Jerusalem, and 
went down to Caesarea Augusta, on the sea-coast, long the seat of 
the government of Palestine, and a more agreeable place for the 
operations of a Gentile court and administration, (for such Agrip- 
pa's must have been, from his long residence at the imperial court 
of Rome,) than the punctilious religious capital of Judea. But 
he was not allowed to remain much longer on the earth, to hinder 
the progress of the truth, by acts of tyranny in subservience to 
the base purposes of winning the favor of his more powerful 
subjects. The hand of God was laid destroyingly on him, in 



226 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

the midst of what seemed the full fruition of that popular adula- 
tion for which he had lived, and surrounded by which he now 
died. Arrayed in a splendid and massy robe of polished silver, 
he seated himself on the throne erected by his grandfather Herod, 
in the vast Herodian theatre at Caesarea, early in the morning 
of the day which was appointed for the celebration of the great 
festal games, in honor of his royal patron, Claudius Caesar. On 
this occasion, to crown his kingly triumphs, the embassadors of 
the ancient commercial Phoenician cities, Tyre and Sidon, appeared 
before him, to receive his condescending answer to their submis- 
sive requests for the re-establishment of a friendly intercourse be- 
tween his dominions and theirs, — the agricultural products of the 
former being quite essential to the thriving trade of the latter. 
Agrippa's reply was now publicly given to them, in which he 
graciously granted their requests, in such a tone of eloquent 
benignity, that the admiring assembly expressed their approbation 
in shouts of praise ; and at last some bold adulators, catching the 
idea from the rays of dazzling light which flashed from the polished 
surfaces of his metallic robe, and threw a sort of glory over and 
around him, cried out, in impious exclamation — " It is the voice 
of a god, and not of a man." So little taste had the foolish king, 
that he did not check this pitiful outbreak of silly blasphemy ; but 
sat listening to all, in the most unmoved self-satisfaction. But in 
the midst of this profane glory, he was called to an account for 
which it ill prepared him. In the expressive though figurative 
language of Luke, — " immediately the messenger of the Lord struck 
him, because he gave not the glory to God." The Jewish histo- 
rian, too, in a similar manner assigns the reason, — " The king did 
not rebuke the flatterers, nor refuse their impious adulation. 
Shortly after, he was seized with a pain in the bowels, dreadfully 
violent from the beginning. Turning to his friends, he said — 
1 Behold ! I, your god, am now appointed to end my life, — the 
decree of fate having at once falsified the voices that but just now 
were uttering lies about me ; and I, who have been called immortal 
by you, am now carried off dying.' While he uttered these 
words he was tortured by the increasing violence of his pain, and 
was accordingly carried back to his palace. After five days of 
intense anguish, he died, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and 
in the seventh of his reign ; having reigned four years under Caius 
Caesar, and three under Claudius." Thus ended the days of the 
conscience-stricken tyrant, while the glorious gospel cause which 



227 

he had so vainly thought to check and overthrow, now, in the 
words of Luke, "grew and was multiplied" — the spiteful Jews 
having lost the right arm of their persecuting authority, in the 
death of their king, and all Palestine now passing again under 
the direct Roman rule, whose tolerant principles became once more 
the great protection of the followers of Jesus. 

Agrippa's death. — My combination of the two different accounts given by Luke and 
Josephus of this event, I believe accords with the best authorities ; nor am I disposed, 
as Michaelis is, to reject Josephus's statement as irreconcilable with that in the Acts, 
though deficient in some particulars, which are given in the latter, and though not 
rightly apprehending fully the motives and immediate occasion of many things 
which he mentions. In the same way, too, several minor circumstances are omitted 
in Luke, which can be brought in from Josephus, so as to give a much more vivid 
idea of the whole event than can be obtained from the Acts alone. (See Michaelis's 
Introduction to the New Testament, — on Luke.) But Wolf, Kuinoel, and Bloom- 
field, are very successful and consistent in harmonizing these two seemingly different 
accounts. (See their commentaries in loc.) So also Grotius, (Op. theol., and in 
Poole's Synopsis, in loc.) 

Seized with a pain in the bowels. — This is all that Josephus says of the character 
of the disease ; nor does the expression used by Luke, in fact, imply any thing more. 
The word ™wA>j*d/?pw™? (skolekobrotos) is in the common translations properly enough 
given in its literal primary meaning — " eaten by worms;" but the idea that the use of 
this term by Luke proves him to have believed the diseases to which it was applied 
to have been actually caused by worms, is almost too preposterous to need a refuta- 
tion, among medical men at least. Every intelligent man knows that even the most 
correct and scientific nosologies of modern times abound in terms which, if trans- 
lated in this literal way, would make the most ludicrous absurdities in the established 
nomenclatures. Terms used in medicine as the names of diseases have often origi- 
nated in the most monstrous errors, and have been first applied with an actual refer- 
ence to some false speculation literally expressed in the word ; but the mere explosion 
of the false notion which first suggested the name, is seldom followed by the exclu- 
sion of the term itself. Terms thus applied always almost immediately acquire the 
force of proper names, and nobody ever thinks of the primary signification or ety- 
mology of the term thus used, any more than of the literal meaning of the proper 
names of men, (which were all originally significant.) This is seen more especially 
in the popular names of diseases. Thus no one in applying the term " lunatic" to an 
insane person would think of being supposed to attribute the disease to the influence 
of the moon, though such was the primary idea which brought the word into use, 
(from the Latin luna.) Just so the word " rheumatism" means a flowing or running 
of humors to the part affected; and the word " gout" implies the presence of a drop 
of a noxious humor in the joint; but no mortal is ever disposed to believe this foolish 
old pathology, from the ordinary use of these words. And, to take a corresponding 
instance in the new Testament, — when Matthew applies the term ccXnvia^ofdvovi 
(seleniazomenous, " moon-struck," " lunatics," Matt. iv. 24) to persons who are else- 
where described with the most palpable symptoms of epilepsy, are we to believe that 
the inspired evangelist supposed this disease was caused by the influence of the moon, 
any more than those who in modern times apply the correspondent term, "lunatics," 
to the insane, can refer insanity to that cause'? (Compare Matt. xvii. 15. with Mark 
ix. 18, and Luke ix. 39.) Then why, when Luke in this passage used a word mean- 
ing " gnawed by worms" to designate a violent pain in the bowels, are we to suppose 
that the term is to be taken more literally than the former? The crude and absurd 
pathology of the ancients was full of these idle notions of disease being caused by 
worms or insects in some shape or other; (just as old nurses and quacks, in our times, 
refer nine-tenths of the ailments of children to the same cause.) This had, no doubt, 
given occasion for the application of this word to a violent intestinal pain ; (the result 
of what is even now a common error in diagnosis ;) and Luke knew that all his 
readers would at once best conceive the character of the disease by the application of 
the word which, though with a false notion, was used as the name of such affections. 
Many commentators (see Kuinoel) have, in a comparison of Luke with Josephus, 
concluded the disease to have been a dysentery ; and the conjecture is not extremely 
31 



228 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

unreasonable. My own conjecture (which may be allowed in the professional way) 
would be that the disease was, in truth, that form of neuralgia which attacks the 
stomach and upper intestines, forming the most agonizing disease to which the 
human frame is liable, — being at the same time extremely dangerous, sometimes de- 
stroying life by mere intensity of pain. (This is the gastrodynia of medical authors ; 
in more properly correct systematic nosology, Limosis gastrodynica.) The s) r mp- 
toms of this answer very well to the history of Herod's case, as gathered from both 
Luke and Josephus ; and this supposition agrees with the sacred narrative altogether 
more rationally than the gratuitously absurd assumption of Mede, Eisner, &c, that 
Herod died of phthiriasis, or the lousy disease, against which it is enough to urge, 
if it claims to be favored by a literal interpretation, that a louse is not a worm, nor 
is a worm a louse. The disease which I have named was as fit an instrument of 
divine vengeance as any other that has been supposed; and has an advantage over 
Kuinoel's supposition, inasmuch as Josephus gives no specific symptom of dysentery, 
but merely mentions an " acute pain, dreadfully violent from the beginning," which 
u after five days of intense anguish" caused the death of the patient. As it is, no 
well-educated physician can be made (without the literal meaning is proved) to be- 
lieve in any acute attack of Helminthia carrying off a patient in this way. 



Luke, in mentioning the departure of Peter from Jerusalem 
after his escape from prison by night, merely says — " And going 
out, he went to another place." The vague, uncertain manner 
in which the circumstance is mentioned, seems to imply that the 
writer really knew nothing about this " other place." It was not 
a point essential to the integrity of the narrative, though interest- 
ing to all the readers of the history, since the most trifling par- 
ticulars about the chief apostle might well be supposed desirable 
to be known. But though, if it had been known, it would have 
been well worth recording, it was too trifling a matter to deserve 
any investigation, if it had not been mentioned to Luke by those 
from whom he received the accounts which he gives of Peter ; 
and since he is uniformly particular in mentioning even these 
smaller details, when they fall in the way of his narrative, it is but 
fair to conclude that in this instance he would have satisfied the 
natural and reasonable curiosity of his readers, if he had had the 
means of doing so. There could have been no motive when he 
wrote, for concealing the fact, and he could have expressed the 
whole truth in as few words as he has given to show his own 
ignorance of the point. From the nature of the apostle's motives 
in departing from Jerusalem, it must have been at that time de- 
sirable to have his place of refuge known to as few as possible ; 
and the fact, at that time unknown, would, after the motive for 
concealment had disappeared, be of too little interest to be very 
carefully inquired after by those to whom it was not obvious. In 
this way it happened, that this circumstance was never revealed 
to Luke, who not being among the disciples at Jerusalem, would 



229 

not be in the way of readily hearing of it, and in writing the story 
would not think it worth inquiring for. But one thing seems 
morally certain ; if Peter had taken refuge in any important place 
or well known city, it must have been far more likely to have been 
afterwards a fact sufficiently notorious to have come within the 
knowledge of his historian ; but as the most likely place for a secret 
retirement would have been some obscure region, this would in- 
crease the chances of its remaining subsequently unknown. This 
consideration is of some importance in settling a few negative 
facts in relation to various conjectures which have at different 
times been offered on the place of Peter's refuge. 

Among these, the most idle and unfounded is, that on leaving 
Jerusalem he went to Caesarea. What could have suggested this 
queer fancy to its author, it is hard to say ; but it certainly implies 
the most senseless folly in Peter, when seeking a hiding place 
from the persecution of king Herod Agrippa, to go directly to the 
capital of his dominions, where he might be expected to reside for 
the greater part of the time, and whither he actually did go, imme- 
diately after his disappointment about this very apostle. It was 
jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire, to go thus away from 
among numerous friends who might have found a barely possible 
safety for him in Jerusalem, and to seek a refuge in Caesarea, 
where there were but very few friends of the apostles, and where 
he would be in constant danger of discovery, from the numerous 
minions of the king, who thronged all parts of that royal city, and 
from the great number of Greeks, Romans, and Syrians, making 
up the majority of the population, who hated the very sight of a 
Jew, and would have taken vast pleasure in gratifying their spite, 
and at the same time gaining high favor with the king, by hunting 
out and giving up to wrath an obscure heretic of that hated race. 
It would not have been at all accordant with the serpent-wisdom 
enjoined on the apostle, to have run his head thus into the lion's 
mouth, by seeking a quiet and safe dwelling-place beneath the 
very nose of his powerful persecutor. 

Another conjecture vastly less absurd, but still not highly pro- 
bable, is, that Antioch was the " other place" to which Peter went 
from Jerusalem ; but an objection of great force against this, is 
that already alluded to above, in reference to the ineligibility of a 
great city as a place of concealment ; and in this instance is super- 
added the difficulty of his immediately making this long journey 
over the whole extent of Agrippa's dominions, northward, at such 



230 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

a time, when the king's officers would be everywhere put on the 
alert for him, more particularly in the direction of his old home in 
Galilee, which would be in the nearest way to Antioch. His most 
politic movement, therefore, would be to take some shorter course 
out of Palestine. Moreover, in this case, there is no reason why 
Luke should not have mentioned the name of Antioch, if that had 
been the place. On the contrary, his silence on the point would 
be very remarkable ; since he is in other things so fall on all the 
apostolic acts, when they concern the church of Antioch. 

It has been suggested by others that the expression " to another 
place" — does not imply a departure from Jerusalem, but is per- 
fectly reconcilable with the supposition that Peter remained con- 
cealed in some safe and unknown part of the city. This view 
would very unobjectionably accord with the vagueness of the pas- 
sage, — since, if merely another part of Jerusalem was meant, no 
name could be expected to describe it. But it would certainly 
seem like a presumptuous rashness in Peter, to risk in so idle a 
manner the freedom which he owed to a miraculous interposition ; 
for the circumstance of such an interposition could not be intended 
to justify him in dispensing with a single precaution which would 
be proper and necessary after an escape in any other mode. Such 
is not the course of divine dealings, whether miraculous or ordi- 
nary ; and in a religious as well as an economical view, the force 
and truth of Poor Richard's saying is undoubted, — " God helps 
them who help themselves ;" nor is his helping them any reason 
why they should cease to help themselves. Peter's natural im- 
pulse, as well as a considerate prudence, then, would lead him to 
immediate exertions to keep the freedom so wonderfully obtained ; 
and such an impulse and such a consideration would at once teach 
him that the city was no place for him, at a time when the most 
desperately diligent search might be expected. For as soon as his 
escape was discovered, Luke says, that the king " sought most 
earnestly for him," and in a search thus characterized, inspired, 
too, by the most furious rage at the disappointment, hardly a hole 
or corner of Jerusalem could have been left unransacked ; so that 
this preservation of the apostle from pursuers so determined, would 
have required a continued series of miracles, fully as wonderful as 
that which effected his deliverance from Castle Antonia. His most 
proper and reasonable course would then have been directly east- 
ward from Jerusalem, — a route which would give him the shortest 
exit from the territories of Herod Agrippa, leading him directly 



231 

into Arabia, a region that was, in another great instance hereafter 
mentioned, a place of comfortable and undisturbed refuge for a person 
similarly circumstanced. A journey of fifty or sixty miles, through 
an unfrequented and lonely country, would put him entirely beyond 
pursuit ; and the character of the route would make it exceedingly 
difficult to trace his flight, as the nature of the country would fa- 
cilitate his concealment, while its proximity to Jerusalem would 
make his return, after the removal of the danger by the death of 
Agrippa, as easy as his flight thither in the first place. 

At Jerusalem. — This notion I find no where but in Lardner, who approves it, 
quoting Lenfant. (Lard. Hist, of Apost. and Evang., Life of Peter.) 

HIS SUPPOSED TOUR THROUGH ASIA MINOR. 

One series of papistical fables carries him on his supposed tour on the 
coast beyond Caesarea, and, uniting two theories, makes him visit Antioch 
also ; and finally extends his pilgrimage into the central and northern parts 
of Asia Minor. This fabulous legend, though different in its character 
from the preceding accounts, because it impudently attempts to pass off a 
bald invention as an authentic history, while those are only offered honestly 
as probable conjectures, yet may be worthy of a place here, — because it is 
necessary, in giving a complete view of all the stories which have been re- 
ceived, to present dishonest inventions as well as justifiable speculations. 
The clearest fabulous account given of his journey thither is — that parting 
from Jerusalem as above-mentioned, he directed his way westward toward 
the sea-coast of Palestine, first to Caesarea Stratonis, (or Augusta,) where 
he constituted one of the presbyters who attended him from Jerusalem, 
bishop of the church founded there by him on his visit ; — that leaving 
Caesarea he went northward along the coast, into Phoenicia, arriving at the 
city of Sidon ; that there he performed many cures and also appointed a 
bishop ; — next to Berytus, (now Beyroot,) in Syria, and there also appoint- 
ed a bishop. Going on through Syria, along the coast of the Mediterra- 
nean, they bring him next, in his curiously detailed track, to Biblys ; then 
to the Phoenician Tripoli, to Orthosia, to Antandros, to the island of Ara- 
dus, near the coast, to Balaenas, to Panta, to Laodicea, and at last to Anti- 
och, — planting churches in all these hard-named towns on the w T ay, and 
appointing numerous bishops, as before, as well as performing vast quanti- 
ties of miracles. The story of Peter's journey goes on to say, that after 
leaving Antioch he went into Cappadocia, and stayed some time in Tyana, 
a city of that province. Proceeding westward thence, he came to Ancyra, 
in Galatia, where he raised a dead person, baptized believers, and instituted 
a church, over which he ordained a bishop. Thence northward, into Pon- 
tus, where he visited the cities of Sinope and Amasea, on the coast of the 
Euxine sea. Then turning eastward into Paphlagonia, stopped at Gangra 
and Claudiopolis ; next into Bithynia, to the cities of Nicomedia and Ni- 
caea ; and thence returned directly to Antioch, whence he shortly afterwards 
went to Jerusalem. 

This ingenious piece of apostolic romance is due to the same veracious Meta- 
phrastes, above quoted. I have derived it from him through Caesar Baronius, who 



232 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

gives it in his Annates Ecclesiastici. (44, § 10, 11.) The great annalist approves and 
adopts it however, only as far as it describes the journey of Peter to Antioch ; and 
there he leaves the narrative of Metaphrastes, and instead of taking Peter on his 
long journey through Asia Minor and back to Jerusalem, as just described, carries 
him off upon a far different route, acnieving the great journey westward, which ac- 
cords with the view taken by the vast majority of the old ecclesiastical writers, and 
which is next given here. Metaphrastes also maintains this view, indeed, but sup- 
poses and invents all the events just narrated, as intermediate occurrences, between 
Peter's escape and his great journey ; and begins the account of this latter, after his 
return from his Asian circuit. 

To connect all this long pilgrimage with the story given in the sacred record, the 
sage Baronius makes the ingenious suggestion, that this was the occult reason why 
Agrippa was wroth with those of Tyre and Sidon, — namely, that Peter had gone 
through their country when a fugitive from the royal vengeance, and had been favor- 
ably received by the Tyrians and Sidonians, who should have seized him as a run- 
away from justice, and sent him back to Agrippa. This acute guess, he thinks, will 
show a reason also for the otherwise unaccountable fact, that Luke should mention 
this quarrel between Agrippa and these cities, in connexion with the events of Peter's 
escape and Agrippa's death. For the great Cardinal does not seem to appreciate the 
circumstance of its close relation to the latter event, in presenting the occasion of the 
reconciliation between the king and the offending cities, on which the king made his 
speech to the people, and received the impious tribute of praise, which was followed 
by his death;— the whole constituting a relation sufficiently close between the two 
events, to justify the connexion in Luke. 

THE FIRST SUPPOSED VISIT TO ROME. 

But the view of this passage in Peter's history, which was long adopted 
universally by those who took the pains to ask about this " other place," 
mentioned by Luke, and the view which involves the most important rela- 
tions to other far greater questions, is — that Rome was the chief apostle's 
refuge from the Agrippine persecution, and that in the imperial city he now 
laid the deep foundations of the church universal. On this point some of 
the greatest champions of papistry have expended vast labor, to establish 
a circumstance so convenient for the support of the dogma of the divinely 
appointed supremacy of the Romish church, — since the belief of this early 
visit of Peter would afford a very convenient basis for the very early apos- 
tolical foundation of the Roman see. But though this notion of his refuge 
has received the support of a vast number of great names from the very 
early periods of Christian literature, and though for a long period this view 
was considered indubitable, from the sanction of ancient authorities, there 
is not one of the various conjectures offered, which is so easily overthrown 
on examination, from the manner in which it is connected with other no- 
tions most palpably false and baseless. The old papistical notion was that 
Peter at this time visited Rome, founded the church there, and presided over 
it, as bishop, twenty-five years, but occasionally visiting the east. As respects 
the minute details of this journey to Rome, the papist historians are by no 
means agreed ; few of them having put any value upon the particulars of 
such an itinerary, until those periods when such fables were sought after by 
common readers with more avidity. But there is at least one hard-con- 
scienced narrator, who undertakes to go over all the steps of the apostle on 
the road to the eternal city ; and from his narrative are brought these cir- 
cumstances. The companions assigned him by this romance, on his jour- 
ney, were the evangelist Mark, — Appollinaris, afterwards, as the story goes, 
appointed by him bishop of Ravenna, in Italy, — Martial, afterwards a mis- 
sionary in Gaul, and Rufus, bishop of Capua, in Italy. Pane rati us of Tau- 



peter's apostleship. 233 

romenius, and Marcian of Syracuse, in Sicily, had been sent on by Peter to 
that island, while he was yet staying at Antioch ; but on his voyage he 
landed there and made them his companions also. His great route is said 
to have led him to Troy, on the northern part of the Asian coast of the 
Aegean sea, whence they seem to have made him cross to the eastern port 
of Corinth. At this great city of Greece, they bring him into the company 
of Paul and Silas, who were sent thither, to be sure, on a mission, but evi- 
dently at a different time, — a circumstance which, among many others, helps 
to show the bungling manner in which the story is made up. From Cor- 
inth they carry him next to Syracuse, as just mentioned. Thence to Nea- 
polis, (Naples,) in Campania, where, as the monkish legend says, this chief 
of the apostles celebrated with his companions a mass, for the safe progress 
of his voyage to Italy. Having now reached Italy, he is made the subject 
of a new fable, for the benefit of every city along the coast, and is accord- 
ingly said to have touched at Liburnum, (Livorno of the Italians, called 
Leghorn by the English,) being driven thither by stress of weather, and 
thence to Pisa, near by, where he offered up another mass for his preserva- 
tion, as is still maintained in local fables ; but the general Romish legend 
does not so favor these places, but brings the apostle, without any more ma- 
rine delay or difficulty, directly over land from Naples to Rome ; and on 
this route again, a local superstition commemorates the veritable circum- 
stances, that he made this land-journey from Naples to Rome, on foot ; 
and on the way stopped at the house of a Galilean countryman of his own, 
named Mark, in a town called Atina, of which the said Mark was after- 
wards made bishop. 

Respecting these minute accounts of Peter's stopping-places on this apocryphal 
journey, Baronius says — " Nobilia in iis remanserunt antiquitatis vestigia, sed tra- 
ditiones poti.us quam scriptura firmata." " There are in those places some noble 
remains of this ancient history, bat rather traditions than well assured written ac- 
counts." _ The part of the route from Antioch to Sicily he takes on the authority of 
the imaginative Metaphrastes; but the rest is made up from different local supersti- 
tions of a very modern date, not one of which can be traced farther back than the 
time when every fable of this sort had a high pecuniary value to the inventors, 
in bringing crowds of money-giving pilgrims to the spot which had been hallowed 
by the footsteps of the chief apostle. Even the devout Baronius, however, is obliged 
to confess at the end of the story — " Sed de rebus tarn antiquis et incertis. quid potis- 
simum affirmare debeamus, non satis constat." — " But as to matters so ancient and 
uncertain, it is not sufficiently well established what opinion we may most safely 
pronounce." 

As to the early part of the route, speaking of the account given by Metaphrastes of 
Peter's having on his way through Troy ordained Cornelius, the centurion, bishop 
of that place, Baronius objects to the truth of this statement the assertion that Cor- 
nelius had been previously ordained bishop of Caesarea, where he was converted. 
A very valuable refutation of one fable, by another as utterly unfounded. 

Respecting the causes of this great journey of the apostle to the capital 
of the world, the opinions even of papist writers are as various as they are 
about the route honored by his passage. Some suppose his motive to have 
been merely a desire for a refuge from the persecution of Agrippa ; — a most 
unlikely resort, however, — for nothing could be more easy than his de- 
tection, in passing over such a route, especially by sea, where every vessel 
could be so easily searched at the command of Agrippa, whose influence 
extended far beyond his own territory, supported as he was, by the un- 
bounded possession of the imperial Caesar's favor, which would also make 
the seizure of the fugitive within the great city itself, a very easy thing. 



234 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Others, however, do not consider this journey as connected in any way with 
his flight from Agrippa, (for many suppose it to have been made after the 
death of that king,) and find the motive for such an effort in the vast im- 
portance of the field opened for his labors in the great capital of the world, 
where were so many strong holds of error to be assaulted, and from which 
an influence so wide and effectual might be exerted through numerous 
channels of communication to all parts of the world. Others have sought 
a reason of more definite and limited character, and with vast pains have 
invented and compiled a fable of most absurdly amusing character, to make 
an object for Peter's labors in the distant capital. The story which has 
the greatest number of supporters, is one connected with Simon Magus, 
mentioned in the sacred record in the account of the labors of Philip in 
Samaria, and the visit of Peter and John to that place. The fable begins 
with the assertion that this magician had returned to his former tricks, after 
his insincere conformity to the Christian faith, and had devoted himself 
with new energy to the easy work of popular deception, adding to his former 
evil motives, that of deadly spite against the faith to which he appeared so 
friendly, at the time when the sacred narrative speaks of him last. In order 
to find a field sufficiently ample for his enlarged plans, he went to Rome, 
and there, in the reign of Claudius Caesar, attained a vast renown by his 
magical tricks, so that he was actually esteemed a god, and was even so pro- 
nounced by a solemn decree of the Roman senate, confirmed by Claudius 
himself, who was perfectly carried away with the delusion, which seems 
thus to have involved the highest and the lowest alike. The fable proceeds 
to introduce Peter on the scene, by the circumstance of his being called by 
a divine vision to go to Rome and war against this great impostor, thus 
advancing in his impious supremacy, who had already in Samaria been 
made to acknowledge the miraculous efficacy of the apostolic word. Peter, 
thus brought to Rome by the hand of God, publicly preached abroad the 
doctrine of salvation, and meeting the arch-magician himself, with the same 
divine weapons whose efficacy he had before experienced, overcame him 
utterly, and drove him in confusion and disgrace from the city. Nor were 
the blessings that resulted to Rome from this visit of Peter, of a merely 
spiritual kind. So specially favored with the divine presence and blessing 
were all places where this great apostle happened to be, that even their 
temporal interests shared in the advantages of the divine influence that every 
where followed him. To this cause, therefore, are gravely referred by 
papistical commentators, the remarkable success which, according to hea- 
then historians, attended the Roman arms in different parts of the world 
during the second year of Claudius, to which date this fabulous visit is 
unanimously referred by all who pretend to believe in its occurrence. 

Success of the Roman arms in the second yeo,r of Claudius. The miraculous 
quelling of the rebellion of Scribonianus in Dalmatia, (Dio. 60, Suet, in Claud. 13, 
Plin. iii. ep. 16,) is quoted by Orosius (vii. 7) as an instance of a benefit resulting 
to Rome from the arrival of Peter that same year. Baronius improves upon him by 
enumerating other successes, recorded by Dio, as the conquest of Mauritania, — the 
victories of Sulpicius Galba over the Catti, (in Germany,) and of Gabinius over the 
Marsi. (See Baronius, Vol. I. pp. 329, 330, A. C. 44, IT 60.) 

Importance of the field of labor. — This is the view taken by Leo, (in serm. 1. in 
nat. apost. quoted by Baronius, Ann. 44. § 26.) " When the twelve apostles, after re- 
ceiving from the Holy Spirit the power of speaking all languages," (an assertion, by 
the way, no where found in the sacred record,) " had undertaken the labor of imbu- 
ing the world with the gospel, dividing its several portions among themselves.— the 



peter's apostleship. 235 

most blessed Peter, the chief of the apostolic order, was appointed to the capital of 
the Roman empire, so that the light of truth, which was revealed for the salvation of 
all nations, might, from the very head, diffuse itself with the more power through the 
whole body of the world. For, what country had not some citizens in this city ! Or 
what, nation anywhere, could be ignorant of any thing which Rome had been taught 1 
Here were philosophical dogmas to be put down — vanities of worldly wisdom to be 
weakened — idol-worship to be overthrown," — &c. " To this city therefore, thou, 
most blessed apostle Peter ! didst not fear to come, and (sharing thy glory with the 
apostle Paul, there occupied with the arrangement of other churches) didst enter that 
forest of raging beasts, and didst pass upon that ocean of boisterous depths, with 
more firmness than when thou walkedst on the sea. Nor didst thou fear Rome, the 
mistress of the world, though thou didst once, in the house of Caiaphas, dread the 
servant-maid of the priest. Not because the power of Claudius, or the cruelty of 
Nero, were less dreadful than the judgment of Pilate, or the rage of the Jews ; but 
because the power of love overcame the occasion of fear, since thy regard for the 
salvation of souls would not suffer thee to yield to terror. * * * The miracu- 
lous signs, gifts of grace, and trials of virtue, which had already been so multiplied 
to thee, now increased thy boldness. Already hadst thou taught those nations of the 
circumcision who believed. Already hadst thou filled Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 
Asia, and Bithynia with the gospel; and now, without a doubt of the advance of the 
work, or of the certainty of thy own fate, thou didst plant the trophy of the cross of 
Christ upon the towers of Rome." Arnobius is also quoted by Baronius, to similar 
effect. 

Simon Magus. — This fable has received a wonderfully wide circulation, and long 
maintained a place among the credible accounts of early Christian history, probably 
from the circumstance of its taking its origin from so early a source. Justin Martyr, 
who flourished from the year 140 and afterwards, in his apology for the Christian 
religion, addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius, says — " Simon, a Samaritan, born 
in a village named Gitthon, in the time of Claudius Caesar, was received as a god 
in your imperial city of Rome, and honored with a statue, like other gods, on account 
of his magical powers there exhibited by the aid of demons; and this statue was set 
up in the river Tiber, between two bridges, and had this Latin inscription, — Simoni 
deo sancto. Him, too, all the Samaritans worship, and a few of other nations, ac- 
knowledging him as the highest god, (tcp&tov 6e6v.) They also worship a certain 
Helena, who at that time followed him about," &c. &c. &c. with more silly trash 
besides, than I can find room for. And in another passage of the same work, he 
alludes to the same circumstances. " In your city, the mistress of the world, in the 
time of Claudius Caesar, Simon Magus struck the Roman Senate and people with 
such admiration of himself, that he was ranked among the gods, and was honored 
with a statue." Irenaeus, who flourished about the year 180, also gives this story, 
with hardly any variation from Justin. Tertullian, about A. D. 200, repeats the 
same, with the addition of the circumstance, that, not satisfied with the honors paid 
to himself, he caused the people to debase themselves still furiher, by paying divine 
honors to a woman called (by Tertullian) Larentina, who was exalted by them to a 
rank with the goddesses of the ancient mythology, though the good father gives her 
but a bad name. Eusebius, also, about A. D. 320, refers to the testimonies of Justin 
and Irenaeus, and adds some strange particulars about a sect, existing in his time, 
the members of which were said to acknowledge this Simon as the author of their 
faith, whom they worshiped along with this woman Helena, falling prostrate before 
the pictures of both of them, with incense and sacrifices and libations to them, with 
other rites, unutterably and unwritably bad. (See Euseb. Hist. Ecc, II. 13.) 

In the three former writers, Justin, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, this absurd story 
stands by itself, and has no connexion with the life of Peter ; but Eusebius goes on 
to commemorate the circumstance, previously unrecorded, that Peter went to Rome 
for the express purpose of putting down this blasphemous wretch, as specified above, 
in the text of my narrative from this author. (See Euseb. Hist. Ecc, II. 14.) 

Now all this fine series of accounts, though seeming to bear such an overwhelming 
weight of testimony in favor of the truth and reality of Simon Magus's visit to Rome, 
is proved to be originally based on an absolute falsehood ; and the nature of this false- 
hood was exposed, as if by a special dispensation of Providence. In the year 1574, 
during the pontificate of Pope Gregory XIII. there was an excavation 'made for 
some indifferent purpose in Rome, on the very island in the Tiber, so particularly- 
described by Justin, as lying in the centre of the river between the two bridges, each 
of which rested an abutment on it, and ran from it to the opposite shores. In the 
32 



236 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

progress of this excavation, the workmen, as is very common in that vast city of 
buried ruins, turned up, among other remains of antiquity, the remnant of a statue 
with its pedestal, which had evidently once stood erect on the spot. Upon the pedes- 
tal was an inscription most distinctly legible, in these Avords: Semoni sango deo fidio 

sacrum — Sex. Pompeius s. p, p. col. mussianus — quinquennalis decur. BID1ENTAL1S 

donum dedit. (This was in four lines, each line ending were the blank spaces are 
marked in the copy.) In order to understand this sentence, it must be known, that 
the Romans, among the innumerable objects of worship in their complicated religion, 
had a peculiar set of deities which they calied Semones. A Semo was a kind of infe- 
rior god, of an earthly character and office, so low as to unfit him for a place among the 
great gods of heaven, Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, &c, and was accordingly confined in his 
residence entirely to the "earth; where the Semones received high honors and devout 
worship, and were commemorated in many places, both in city and country, by 
statues, before which the passer might pay his worship, if devoutly disposed. These 
statues were often of a votive character, erected by wealthy or distinguished persons, 
for fancied aid received from some one of these Semones, in some particular season 
of distress, or for general prosperity. This was evidently the object of the statue in 
question. Priapus, Hipporea, Vertumnus, and such minor gods, were included under 
the general title of Semones ; and among them was also ranked a Sabine divinity, 
named Sangus, or Sancus, who is, by some writers, considered as corresponding in 
character to the Hercules of the Greeks. Sangus or Sancus is often alluded to in 
the Roman classics. Propertius (book 4) has a verse referring to him as a Sabine 
deity. " Sic Sancum Tatiae composuere Cures." Ovid also, — " Gtuaerebam Nonas 
Sanco fidio ne referrem." As to this providentially-recovered remnant of antiquity, 
therefore, there can be no doubt that it was a votive monument, erected by Sextus 
Pompey to Sangus the Semo, for some reason not very clearly expressed. 
Baronius tells, also, that he had seen a stone similarly inscribed. " sango sancto 

SEMON. DEO FIDIO SACRUM — DECURIO SACERDOTUM B1DENTALIUM — RECIPERATIS VECTIGALI- 

bus." That is, " Sacred to Sangus, the holy Semo, the god of faith, — a decury (com- 
pany of ten) of the priests of the Bidental sacrifices have raised this in gratitude for 
their recovered incomes." Dionysius Halicarnassaeus is also quoted by Baronius, 
as referring to the worship of the Semo, Sangus ; and from him and various other 
ancient writers, it appears that vows and sacrifices were offered to this Sangus, for a 
safe journey and happy return from a distance. 

From a consideration of all the circumstances of this remarkable discovery, and 
from the palpable evidence afforded by the inherent absurdity of the story told by 
Justin Martyr and his copyists, the conclusion is justifiable and irresistible, that 
Justin himself, being a native of Syria, and having read the story of Simon Magus 
in the Acts, where it is recorded that he was profoundly reverenced by the Samari- 
tans, and was silenced and rebuked by Peter when he visited that place,— with all 
this story fresh in his mind, (for he was but a new convert to Christianity,) came to 
Rome, and going through that city, an ignorant foreigner, without any knowledge of 
the religion, or superstitions, or deities, and with but an indifferent acquaintance with 
their language, came along this bridge over the Tiber, to the island, where had been 
erected this votive statue to Semo Sangus; and looking at the inscription in the way 
that might be expected of one to whom the language and religion were strange, he 
was struck at once with the name Semon, as so much resembling the well known 
eastern name Simon, and began speculating at once, about what person of that name 
could ever have come from the east to Rome, and there received the honors of a god. 
Justin's want of familiarity with the language of the Romans, would prevent his ob- 
taining any satisfactory information on the subject, from the passers-by; and if he 
attempted to question them about it, he would be very apt to interpret their imperfect 
communications in such a way as suited the notion he had taken up. If he asked his 
Christian brethren about the matter — their very low character for general intelli- 
gence — the circumstance that those with whom he was most familiar, must have 
been of eastern origin, and as ignorant as he of the minute peculiarities of the Roman 
religion— and their common disposition to wilfully pervert the truth, and invent fables 
for the sake of a good story connected with their own faith, (of which we have evi- 
dences vastly numerous, and sadly powerful, in the multitude of such legends that 
have come down from the Christians of those times,) would all conspire to help the 
invention and completion of the foolish and unfounded notion, that this statue here 
erected, Semoni Sanco Deo, was the same as that Simoni Deo Sancto, that is — "to the 
holy god Simon;" and as it was always necessary to the introduction of a new god 
among those at Rome, that the senate should pass a solemn act and decree to that 



peter's apostlesiiip. 237 

effect, which should be confirmed by the approbation of the emperor, it would at 
once occur to his own imaginative mind, or to the inventions of his fabricating in- 
formers, that Simon must of course have received such a decree from the seriate and 
Caesar. This necessarily also implied vast renown, and extensive favor with all the 
Romans, which he must have acquired, to be sure, by his magical tricks, aided by 
the demoniac powers; and so all the foolish particulars of the story would be made 
out as fast as wanted. The paltry fable also appended to this, by all the Fathers who 
gave the former story, to the effect, that some woman closely connected with him, 
was worshiped along with him, variously named Helena, Selena, and Larentina, has 
no doubt a similarly baseless origin ; but is harder to trace to its beginnings, because 
it was not connected with an assertion, capable of direct ocular, as well as historical 
refutation, as that about Simon's statue most fortunately was. The second name, 
Selena, given by Irenaeus, is exactly the Greek word for the moon, which was often 
worshiped under its appropriate name ; and this tale may have been caught up from 
some connexion between such a ceremony and the worship of some of the Semones, 
— all the elegant details of her life and character being invented to suit the fancies 
of the reverend fathers. The story that she had followed Simon to Rome from the 
Phoenician cities, Tyre and Sidon, suggests to my mind at this moment, that there 
may have been a connexion between this and some old story of the importation of a 
piece of idolatry from that region, so famed for the worship of the " mooned Ashta- 
roth, heaven's queen and mother both." But this trash is not worth the time and 
paper I am spending upon it, since the main part of the story, concerning Simon 
Magus as having ever been seen or heard of in Rome, by senate, prince, or people, 
in the days of Claudius, is shown, beyond all reasonable question, to be utterly false, 
and based merely on a blunder of Justin Martyr, who did not know Latin enough to 
tell the difference between sanco and sanclo, nor between Sernoni and Simoiii. And 
after all, this is but a specimen of Justin Martyr's erroneous statements, of which 
his few pages present other instances for the inquiring reader to stumble overhand 
bewilder himself upon. Take, for example, the gross confusion of names and dates 
which he makes in a passage which accidentally meets my eye, on a page near 
that from which the above extract is taken. In attempting to give an account of the 
way in which the Hebrew Bible was first translated into Greek, he says that Ptolemy, 
king of Egypt, sent to Herod, king of the Jews, for a copy of the Bible. But when or 
where does any history, sacred or profane, give any account whatever of any Ptolemy, 
king of Egypt, who was contemporary with either of the Herods 2 The last of the Ptole- 
mies was killed, while a boy, in the Egyptian war with Julius Caesar, before Herod 
the Great had himself attained to manhood, or could have had the most distant thought 
of the throne of Palestine. The Ptolemy who is said to have procured the Greek 
translation of the Bible, however, lived about three hundred years before the first 
Herod ! It is lamentable to think that such is the character of the earliest Christian 
Father who has left works of any magnitude. Who can wonder that Apologies 
for the Christian religion, full of such blunders, should have failed to secure the 
belief, or move the attention of either of the Antonines, to whom they were addressed, 
— the Philosophic, or the Pious'? By a writer, too, who pretended to tell the wisest 
of the Caesars, that, in his imperial city, had been worshiped, from the days of Clau- 
dius, a miserable Samaritan impostor, who, an outcast from his own outcast land, 
had in Rome, by a solemn senatorial and imperial decree, been exalted to the high- 
est godship, and that the evidence of this fact was found in a statue which that em- 
peror well knew to be dedicated to the most ancient deities of Etruscan origin, wor- 
shiped there ever since the days of Noma Pompilius, but which this Syrian Christian 
had supposed to commemorate a man who had never been heard of out of Samaria, 
except among Christians ! 

The other copyists of Justin hardly deserve any notice ; but it is interesting and 
instructive to observe how, in the progress of fabulous invention, one fabrication 
is pinned upon another, to form a glorious chain of historical sequences, for some 
distant ecclesiastical annalist to hang his faith upon. Eusebius, for instance, en- 
larges the stories of Justin and Irenaeus, by an addition of his own, — that in his 
day there existed a sect which acknowledged this same Simon as god, and worshiped 
him and Helena or Selena, with some mysteriously wicked rites. Now, all that his 
story amounts to, is, that in his time there was a sect called by a name resembling 
that of Simon ; how nearly like it, no one knows ; but that by his own account their 
worship was of a secret character, so that he could, of course, "know nothing certainly. 
But this is enough for him to add, as a solemn confirmation of a story now known to 
have been founded in falsehood. From this beginning, Eusebius goes on to say that 



238 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Peter went to Rome in the second year of Claudius, to war against this Simoa 
Magus, who never went there ; so that we know how much this whole tale is worth 
by looking into the circumstance which constitutes its essential foundation. The 
idea of Peter's visit to Rome at that time, is no where given before Eusebius, except 
in some part of the Clementina, a long series of most unmitigated falsehoods, forged 
in the name of Clemens Romanus, without any certain date, but commonly supposed 
to have been made up of the continued contributions of various authors, during differ- 
ent portions of the second, third, and fourth centuries. 

The fullest account ever given of this fable and all its progress, is found in the 
Annales Ecclesiastici of Caesar Baronius, (A. C. 44. §§ 51 — 59,) who, after furnish- 
ing the most ample references to sacred and profane authorities, which palpably de- 
monstrate the falsity of the story, returns with all his usual irrational bigotry to the 
solemn conviction that the Fathers and the saints who tell the story, must have had 
some very good reason for believing it. 

The learned and critical Valesius, in his notes on Eusebius's account of this mat- 
ter, (Annot. in Euseb. Hist. Ecc. II. 13,) very decidedly condemns the fable, and his 
few remarks are so satisfactory in explaining the occasion of Justin's deception, as 
to be worth translating entire. " Learned men have long since remarked that Justin 
made a mistake, through ignorance of the Latin language, in supposing that a statue 
set up to the Semon Sancus, was consecrated to Simon Magus. That very statue 
which Justin saw on the island of the Tiber, was not long ago dug up with this in- 
scription, as just said, — ' Semoni Sango deo fidio.' — Sancus was a god among the 
Sabines, presiding over contracts and promises, and was named Sangus or Sancus, 
from this circumstance of sanctioning engagements, — {a sanciendo.) For the same 
reason he was called Deus Fidius, (the faithful god,) from the faith (a fide) which 
he was invoked to guard." (In the form of a familiar oath this name often occurs 
in Cicero and other Latin classics, as is well known to every Latin scholar. " Me 
Deus Fidius!" — or, in one word, " medius-fidius !" — was the colloquial invocation of 
this god, corresponding to " Me Hercule !" — which was that of his Grecian type.) 
" Some Samaritans deceived Justin, persuading him that this statue was raised to 
Simon Magus, who was a Samaritan. As if the Romans would have deified a ma- 
gician and fortune-teller before his death ! Or as if the Romans would have named 
a god with the superfluous epithet of ' holy 1 added !" — Valesius is undoubtedly just in 
thus scornfully rejecting this fable; but instead of attributing all Justin's mistake to 
the misinformation of Samaritan friends in Rome, it seems reasonable that the notion 
might have originated in Justin's own head ; for he was himself born and brought 
up in Samaria, the very scene of Simon's magical tricks, and he had probably heard 
so much of him as to think him great sorcerer enough for the heathen Romans to 
adore and deify. 

Antony Pagi quotes the opinion of Valesius approvingly, and says himself of 
Justin, that he was " itaque aut nominum vicinitate aut falsa relatione deceptus." 
Pagi, therefore, himself a Romanist, condemns Baronius for his adoption and sup- 
port of the fable. (A. Pagi, Critic. Baron. A. 42. — page 36.) 

Mosheim also grants that " the accounts of Simon's tragical death, and of a statue 
decreed him at Rome, are rejected with great unanimity by the learned at the present 
day." (Ecc. Hist. I. i. 2. chap. 5. § 12.) But this eminent historian seems disposed 
to place much more credit on the patristic accounts of Simon's heresies than many 
others do. He considers Simon Magus to have been actually the founder of the sect 
which is described by Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Eusebius. as claiming his 
name. But it deserves consideration that the Acts of the Apostles give no account 
of any return of Simon Magus to his former courses, and to an opposition to Chris- 
tianity, though he manifested, after his partial conversion, a most lamentable igno- 
rance of the faith which he had espoused ; and there is certainly much reason to 
question the stories which give such strange accounts of his subsequent actions, since 
the writers who present them stand already convicted of gross and palpable error in 
respect to the most important of the incidents which they connect with these state- 
ments. All that really appears from this testimony is, that there was in the third and 
fourth centuries a set of Gnostical heretics who claimed Simon Magus for their 
founder; but whether this was merely a trick of their founder in assuming that 
name — or was a bare invention of the members of the sect to give themselves char- 
acter, by referring to a person described so remarkably in the Acts of the Apostles, — 
or was the actual truth, does in no way appear. Many have supposed that there 
were really two persons named Simon Magus ; first, the one mentioned in Acts viii. 



peter's apostleship. 239 

9_24, and second, the founder of this sect. Mosheim, indeed, condemns the suppo- 
sition, but without offering a reason. 

Dr. Murdock says—" Probably some follower of Simon Magus imposed on Justin, 
(who did not understand Latin, being a Syrian,) representing this monument as being 
erected to that magician. — The whole story of Simon Magus going to Rome, and 
there having this monument erected to him, is now universality discarded, and has 
been, from near the time when the monument was discovered in 1574. But this story 
being believed in the second century, some ingenious Jewish Christian, about A. D. 
200, composed a long fictitious history of Peter's conflicts with Simon Magus. The 
narrative in the book of Acts is here spread out to a great length ; and Peter is made 
to pursue Simon, for many months, and hunt him from Caesarea all the way to An- 
tioch; whence Simon fled to Rome. There he now practised his black art success- 
fully ; till Peter, being sent for, went to Rome to confront him. — This work was re- 
written and extensively circulated in different forms. The Fathers of the third and 
following centuries all regarded it as a novel, yet as a novel founded on fact, and 
therefore as partly true and partly false. It, of course, became a storehouse for such 
as wished to eulogize Peter ; and from it large drafts were made in subsequent ages. 
The work is still extant in Latin, as translated by Rufinus in ten books, called — ' Re- 
cognitions of Clement,' and in Greek, called — ' Clementina,' and also abridged, 
called — ' The Acts of Peter.' " (Murdock's MS. Lectures. Abridged series. No. V. 
pp. 11, 12.) 

On the passage from Mosheim also, just quoted, Dr. Murdock, in a note, remarks 
at the close of his comments on the story, — " this inscription, which Justin, being an 
Asiatic, might easily misunderstand, was undoubtedly intended for an ancient pagan 
god." (Transl. Mosheim, Vol. I. p. 114, note 11.) 

Creuzer also, in his deep and extensive researches into the religions of antiquity, 
in giving a " view of some of the older Italian nations," speaks of " Sancus Semo." 
He quotes Augustin (De civitate Dei. XVIII. 19) as authority for the opinion that he 
was an ancient king, deified. He also alludes to the passage in Ovid, (quoted above 
by Baronius,) where he is connected with Hercules, and alluded to under three titles, 
as Semo, Sancus, and Fidius. (Ovid, Fast. VI. 213, et seq.) But the learned Creuzer 
does not seem to have any correct notion of the character of the Semones, as a dis- 
tinct order of inferior deities ; — a fact perfectly certain, as given above, for which 
abundant authority is found in Varro, (de Mystag.) as quoted by Fulgentius and Ba- 
ronius. From Creuzer I also notice, in an accidental immediate connexion with 
Semo Sancus, the fact that the worship of the moon (Luna) was also of Sabine origin ; 
and being introduced along with that of Sancus, by Numa, may have had some rela- 
tion to that Semo, and may have concurred in originating the notion of the Fathers 
about the woman Selena, or Helena, as worshiped along with Simon. He also just 
barely alludes to the fact that Justin and Irenaeus have confounded this Semo Sancus 
with Simon Magus. (See Creuzer's " Symbolik und Mythologie der alter Volker," 
II. Theil, pp. 964—965.) 

The conclusion of the whole matter then most reasonably seems to be — that, of 
Simon Magus nothing is known, except what is related in Acts viii., and that the 
stories concerning the visit of Simon to Rome, and the foundation of a Gnostical 
sect, must either be referred to another person of the same name in later times, or be 
condemned as sheer inventions. 

This fable, as connected with the notion of Peter's visit to Rome, has been made, 
among some skeptical Protestants, the occasion of a tolerable joke, the point of which 
consists in the identity of the first names of the apostle and the magician, and in the 
connexion of the latter with the crime from him named Simony, which is the impart- 
ing and obtaining of spiritual and ecclesiastical gifts for money; (Acts viii. 18, 20;) 
and as a grand source of the papal income is the sale of indulgences, absolutions, 
benefices, &c, the hit on the court of Rome is palpable. The original Latin of the 
joke is — 

" An Petrus Romae fuerit, sub judice lis est : 
Simonem Romae nemo fuisse negat." 
It has been thus freely rendered into English rhyme: — 

" If Peter went to Rome, has long been mooted: 
That Simon has been, cannot be disputed." 

The next conclusion authorized by those who support this fable is, that 
Peter, after achieving this great work of vanquishing the impostor Simon, 



240 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

proceeded to preach the gospel generally ; yet not at first to the hereditary 
citizens of imperial Rome, nor to any of the Gentiles, but to his own coun- 
trymen the Jews, great numbers of whom then made their permanent abode 
in the great city. These foreigners, at that time, were limited in Rome to 
a peculiar section of the suburbs, and hardly dwelt within the walls of the 
city itself; — an allotment corresponding with similar limitations existing in 
some of the modern cities of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, and even 
in London, though there, only in accordance with long usage, and with 
actual convenience, but not- with any existing law. The quarter of Rome 
in which the Jews dwelt in the days of Claudius, was west of the central 
section of the city, beyond the Tiber ; and to this suburban portion, the 
story supposes the residence and labors of Peter to have been at first con- 
fined. But after a time, the fame of this mighty preacher of a new faith 
spread beyond, from this despised foreign portion of the environs, across the 
Tiber, over the seven hills themselves, and even into the halls of the patri- 
cian lords of Rome. Such an extension of fame, indeed, seems quite neces- 
sary to make these two parts of this likely story hang together at all ; for 
it is hard to see how a stranger, from a distant eastern land, could thus ap- 
pear suddenly among them, and overturn, with a defeat so total and signal, 
the pretensions of one who had lately been exalted by the opinions of an 
adoring people to the character of a god, and had even received the solemn 
national sanction of this exaltation by a formal decree of the senate of Rome, 
confirmed by the absolute voice of the Caesar himself; and after such a 
victory, over such a person, be left long unnoticed in an obscure suburb. 
In accordance, therefore, with this reasonable notion, it is recorded in the 
continuation of the story, that when Peter, preaching at Rome, grew famous 
among the Gentiles, he was no longer allowed to occupy himself wholly 
among the Jews, but was thereafter taken by Pudens, a senator who believed 
in Christ, into his own house, on the Viminal Mount, one of the seven hills, 
but near the Jewish suburb. In the neighborhood of this house, as the 
legend relates, was afterwards erected a monument, called "the Shepherd's," 
— a name which serves to identify this important locality to the modern 
Romans to this day. Being thus established in these lordly patrician quar- 
ters, the poor Galilean fisherman might well have thought himself blessed, 
in such a pleasant change from the uncomfortable lodgings with which the 
royal Agrippa had lately accommodated him, and from which he had made 
so willing an exit. But the legend does the faithful and devoted apostle the 
justice to represent him as by no means moved by these luxurious circum- 
stances, to the least forgetfulness of the high commission which was to be 
followed through all sorts of self-denial, — no less that which drew him from 
the soft and soul-relaxing enjoyments of a patrician palace, than that which 
led him to renounce the simple, hard-earned profits of a fisherman, on the 
changeful sea of Gennesaret, or to calmly meet the threats, the stripes, the 
chains, and the condemned cell, with which the enmity of the Jewish magis- 
trates had steadily striven to quench his fiery and energetic spirit. He is 
described as steadily laboring in the cause of the gospel among the Gentiles 
as well as the Jews, and with such success during the whole of the first 
year of his stay, that in the beginning of the following year he is said by 
papist writers to have solemnly and formally founded the church of 
Rome. This important fictitious event is dated with the most exact par- 
ticularity, on the fifteenth of February, in the forty-third year of Christ, 



PETER-'S APOSTLESHIP. 241 

and the third year of the reign of the emperor Claudius. The empty, un- 
meaning pomposity of this announcement is a sufficient evidence of its fic- 
titious character. According to the story itself, here Peter had been 
preaching nearly a whole year at Rome ; and if preaching, having a regu- 
lar congregation, of course, and performing the usual accompaniments of 
preaching, as baptism, &c. Now there is not in the whole apostolic his- 
tory the least account, nor the shadow of a hint, of any such ceremony as 
the founding of a church, distinct from the mere gathering of an assembly 
of believing listeners, who acknowledged their faith in Jesus by profession 
and by the sacraments. The organization of this religious assembly might 
indeed be made more perfect at one time than at another; as for instance, a 
new church, which during an apostle's stay with it and preaching to it, had 
been abundantly well governed by the simple guidance of his wise, fatherly 
care, would, on his departure, need some more regular, permanent provi- 
sion for its government, lest among those who were all religious co-equals, 
there should arise disputes which would require a regularly constituted 
authority to allay them. The apostle might, therefore, in such advanced 
requirements of the church, ordain elders, and so on ; but such an appendix 
could not, with the slightest regard to common sense or the rules of honest 
interpretation of language, be said to constitute the founding of a church. 
The very phrase of ordaining elders in a church, palpably implies and re- 
quires the previous distinct, complete existence of the church. In fact the 
entity of a church implies nothing more than a regular assembly of believ- 
ers, with an authorized ministry ; and if Peter had been preaching several 
months to the Jews of the trans-Tiberine suburb, or to the Romans of the 
Viminal mount, there must have been in one or both of those places, a 
church, to all intents, purposes, definitions, and etymologies of a church. — 
So that for him, almost a year after, to proceed to found a church in Rome, 
was the most idle work of supererogation in the world. And all the 
pompous statements of papist writers about any such formality, and all the 
quotations that might be brought out of the Fathers in its support, from 
Clement downwards, could not relieve the assertion of one particle of its 
palpable, self-evident absurdity. But the fable proceeds in the account of 
this important movement, dating the apostolic reign of Peter from this very 
occasion, as above fixed, and running over various imaginary acts of his, 
during the tedious seven years for which the story ties him down to this 
one spot. Among many other unfounded matters, is specified the assertion, 
that from this city during the first year of his episcopate, he wrote his first 
epistle, which he addressed to the believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 
Asia, and Bithynia, — -the countries which are enumerated as visited by him 
in his fictitious tour. This opinion is grounded on the circumstance of its 
being dated from Babylon, which several later Fathers understood as a term 
spiritually applied to Rome ; but in the proper place this notion will be 
fully discussed, and the true origin of the epistle more satisfactorily given. 
Another important event in the history of the scriptures, — the writing of 
the gospel of Mark, — is also commonly connected with this part of Peter's 
life, by the popish historians ; but this event, with an account of the nature 
of this supposed connexion, and the discussion of all points in this subject, 
can be better shown in the life of that evangelist ; and to that it is therefore 
deferred. These matters and several others as little in place, seem to be 
introduced into this part of Peter's life, mainly for the sake of giving him 



242 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

something particular to do, during his somewhat tedious stay in Rome, 
where they make him remain seven years after his first journey thither ; 
and give him here the character, office, and title of bishop, — a piece of nom- 
enclature perfectly unscriptural and absurd, because no apostle, in the New 
Testament, is ever called a bishop : but on the contrary, the office was evi- 
dently created to provide a substitute for an apostle, — a person who might 
perform the pastoral duties to the church, in the absence of its apostolic 
founder, overseeing and managing all its affairs in his stead, to report to 
him at his visitations, or in reply to his epistolary charges. To call an 
apostle a bishop, therefore, implies the absurdity of calling a superior offi- 
cer by the title of his inferior, — as to call a captain, lieutenant, or a general- 
in-chief, colonel, or even as to call a bishop, deacon. During the life-time 
of the apostles, " bishop" was only a secondary title, and it was not till the 
death of all those commissioned by Christ, that this became the supreme 
officer in all churches. But the papists, not appreciating any difficulty of 
this kind, go on crowning one absurdity with another, which claims, how- 
ever, the additional merit of being amusing in its folly. This is the minute 
particularization of the shape, stuff, accoutrements, and so on, of the chair 
in which bishop Peter sat at Rome in his episcopal character. This identi- 
cal wooden chair in which his apostolic body was seated when he was ex- 
erting the functions of his bishopric, is still, according to the same high 
papal authorities which maintain the fact of his ever having been bishop, 
preserved in the great Basilica of St. Peter's, at Rome, and is even now, on 
certain high occasions, brought out from its holy storehouse to bless with 
its presence the eyes of the adoring people. This chair is kept covered 
with a linen veil, among the various similar treasures of the Vatican, and 
has been eminent for the vast numbers of great miracles wrought by its 
presence. As a preliminary step, however, to a real faith in the efficacy of 
this old piece of furniture, it is necessary that those who hear the stories 
should believe that Peter was ever at Rome, to sit in this or any other chair 
there. It is observed, however, in connexion with this lumbering article, 
in the papist histories, that on taking possession of this chair, as bishop of 
Rome, Peter resigned the bishopric of Antioch, committing that see to the 
charge of Euodius, it having been the original diocese of this chief apos- 
tle, — a story about as true, as that any apostle was ever bishop anywhere. 
The apostles were missionaries for the most part, preaching the word of 
God from place to place, appointing bishops to govern and manage the 
churches in their absence, and after their final departure ; but no apostle is, 
on any occasion whatever, called a bishop in any part of the New Testa- 
ment, or by any early writer. The most important objection, however, to 
all this absurd account of Peter, as bishop of Rome, is the fact uniformly 
attested by those early Fathers, who allude to his having ever visited that 
city, that having founded the church there, he appointed Linus the first 
bishop, — a statement in exact accordance with the view here given of the 
office of a bishop, and of the mode in which the apostles constituted that 
office in the churches founded and visited by them. 

The date of the foundation. — All this is announced with the most elaborate so- 
lemnity, in all the older papist writers, because on this point of the foundation of the 
Roman church by Peter, they were long in the habit of basing the whole right and 
title of the bishop of Rome, as Peter's successor, to the supremacy of the church 
universal. The great authorities, quoted by them in support of this exact account of 



peter's apostleship. 243 

the whole affair, with all its dates, even to the month and day, are the bulls of some of 
the popes, enforcing the celebration of that day throughout all the churches under the 
Romish see, and the forms of prayer in which this occasion is commemorated even 
to this day. Moreover, a particular form is quoted from some of the old rituals of 
the church, not now in use, in which the ancient mode of celebrating this event, in. 
prayer and thanksgiving, is verbally given. " Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui in- 
effabili sacramento, apostolo tuo Petro principatum Romae urbis tribuisti, unde se 
evangelica Veritas per tota mundi regna diffunderet: praesta quaesumus, ut quod in 
orbem terrarum ejus praedicatione manavit, universitas Christiana devotione sequa- 
tur." — " Almighty, eternal God ! who by an ineffable consecration didst give to thy 
apostle Peter the dominion of the city of Rome,'that thence the gospel truth might 
diffuse itself throughout all the kingdoms of the world: grant, we pray, that what has 
flowed into the whole circuit of the earth by his preaching, all Christendom may de- 
voutly follow." — A prayer so melodiously expressed, and in such beautiful Latin, 
that it is a great pity it should have been a mere trick, to spread and perpetuate a 
downright, baseless lie, which had no other object than the extension of the gloomy, 
soul-darkening tyranny of the papal sway. Other forms of prayer, for private occa- 
sions, are also mentioned by Baronius, as commemorating the foundation of the 
church of Rome by Peter ; and all these, as well as the former, being fixed for the 
fifteenth of February, as above quoted. Those records of fables, also, the old Roman 
martyrologies, are cited for evidence. The later Latin Fathers add their testi- 
mony, and even the devout Augustin (serm. 15, 16, de sanct. &c.) is quoted in sup- 
port of it. Baronius gives all these evidences, (Ann. 45, § 1,) and goes on to earn 
the cardinal's hat, which finally rewarded his zealous efforts, by maintaining the 
unity and universality of this apostolie foundation, and the absolute supremacy con- 
sequently appertaining to the succession of Peter in the Roman see. 

Peter's chair. — This fable is from Baronius, who wrote about 1580; but alas! mo- 
dern accidental discoveries make dreadful havoe with papistical antiquities, and have 
done as much to correct the mistake in this matter, as in Justin's blunder about Simon 
Magus. I had transcribed Baronius's story into the text, as above, without knowing 
of the fact, till a glance at the investigations of the sagacious Bower gave me the 
information which I here extract from him. 

" They had, as they thought, till the year 1662, a pregnant proof, not only of St. 
Peter's erecting their chair, but of his sitting in it himself-, for till that year, the very 
chair, on which they believed, or would make others believe, he had sat, was shown 
and exposed to public adoration on the 18th of January, the festival of the said chair. 
But while it was cleaning, in order to be set up in some conspicuous place of the 
Vatican, the twelve labors of Hercules unluckily appeared engraved on it. c Our 
worship, however,' says Giacomo Bartolini, who was present at this discovery, and 
relates it, ' was not misplaced, since it was not to the wood we paid it, but to the 
prince of the apostles, St. Peter.' An author of no mean character, unwilling to give 
up the holy chair, even after this discovery, as having a place and a peculiar solemnity 
among the other saints, has attempted to explain the labors of Hercules in a mystical 
sense, as emblems representing the future exploits of the popes. (Luchesini catedra 
restituita a S. Pietro.) But the ridiculous and distorted conceits of that writer are 
not worthy our notice, though by Pope Clement X. they were judged not unworthy 
of a reward." (Bower's Lives of the Popes, Vol. I. p. 7, 4to. ed. 1749.) 

The next noticeable thing- that Peter is made to do at Rome, is the send- 
ing out of his disciples from Rome to act as missionaries and bishops in the 
various wide divisions of the Roman empire, westward from the capital, 
which were yet wholly unoccupied by the preachers of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. In his supposed character of keeper of the great flock of Christ, 
having now fully established the Roman see, he turned his eyes to those 
distant regions, and considering their religious wants and utter spiritual 
destitution, sent into them several disciples whom he is supposed to have 
qualified for such labors by his own minute personal instructions. " Thus, 
as rays from the sun, and as streams from the fountain, did the Christian 
faith go forth through these from the see of Peter, and spread far and wide 
throughout the world." So say the imaginative papist historians, whose 
fancy not resting satisfied with merely naming the regions to which these 

DO 



244 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

\ 

new missionaries were now sent, goes on with a catalogue of the persons, 
and of the places where they became finally established in their bishoprics. 
But it would be honoring such fables too much, to record the long string 
of names which are in the papist annals given to designate the missiona- 
ries thus sent out, and the particular places to which they were sent. It is 
enough to notice that the sum of the whole story is, that preachers of the 
gospel were thus sent not only into the western regions alluded to, but into 
many cities of Italy and Sicily. In Gaul, Spain, and Germany, many are 
said to have been certainly established ; and to extend the fable as far as 
possible, it is even hinted that Britain received the gospel through the 
preaching of some of these missionaries of Peter ; but this distant circum- 
stance is stated rather as a conjecture, while the rest are minutely and 
seriously given, in all the grave details of persons and places. 

In various works of this character, Peter is said by the propagators of 
this fable, to have passed seven years at Rome, during all which time he is 
not supposed to have gone beyond the bounds of the city. The occasion of 
his departure at the end of this long period, as stated by the fabulous records 
from which the whole story is drawn, was the great edict of Claudius 
Caesar, banishing all Jews from Rome, among whom Peter must of course 
have been included. This imperial sentence of general banishment, is not 
only alluded to in the Acts of the Apostles, but is particularly specified in 
the Roman and Jewish historians of those times ; from which its exact date 
is ascertained to have been the ninth year of the reign of Claudius, from 
which, as Peter is supposed to have gone to Rome in the second year of 
that reign, the intervening time must have been, as above stated, seven years. 
The particulars of this general banishment, its motives and results, will be 
better given in that part of this work, where important points in authentic, 
true history, are connected with the event. Under these circumstances, 
however, the great first bishop of Rome is supposed to have left this now 
consecrated capital of Christendom, and traveled off eastward, along with 
the general throng of Jewish fugitives. Some of the papist commentators 
on this story are, nevertheless, so much scandalized at the thought of Peter's 
running away in this seemingly undignified manner, (though this is in fact 
the part of the story which is most consistent with the real truth, since no 
apostle was ever taught to consider it beneath his dignity to get out of dan- 
ger,) that they therefore strive to make it appear that he still stayed in 
Rome, in spite of the imperial edict, and boldly preached the gospel, with- 
out reference to danger, until, soon after, it became necessary for him to go 
to the east on important business. The majority, however, are agreed that 
he did remove from Rome along with the rest of the Jews, though while 
he remained there, he is supposed to have kept up the apostolic dignity by 
preaching at all risks. His journey eastward is made out in rather a cir- 
cuitous manner, probably for no better reason than to make their stories as 
long as possible ; and therefore it is enough to say, that he is carried by the 
continuation of the fable, from Rome first into Africa, where he erected a 
church at Carthage, over which he ordained Crescens, one of his Roman 
disciples, as bishop. Proceeding next along the northern coast of the con- 
tinent, he is brought to Alexandria, where, of course, he founds a church, 
leaving the evangelist Mark in it, as bishop ; and passing up the Nile to 
Thebes, constitutes Rufus there, in the same capacity. Thence the fabu- 
lous chroniclers carry him at once to Jerusalem ; and here ends this tedious 



peter's apostleship. 245 

string of details, the story being now resumed from the clear and honest 
record of the sacred historian, to the great refreshment of the writer as well 
as the reader, after detailing so long what is utterly unalloyed falsehood. 

Peter, bishop of Rome.— The great question of his having ever visited this city, has 
two separate and distinct parts, resting on totally different grounds, since they refer 
to two widely distant periods of time ; but that part which refers to his early visit, 
being connected with this portion of the history, I proceed in this place to the full 
examination of all the evidences, which have ever been brought in support of both 
divisions of this great subject in papal dogmatic history, from the supposed records 
of this event in the writings of the early Christian Fathers. On this head, instead 
of myself entering into a course of investigations among these writers, which my 
comparatively slight acquaintance with their works would make exceedingly labori- 
ous to me, and perhaps very incomplete after all, I here avail myself of the learned 
and industrious research of my friend, the Rev. Dr. Murdock, widely and honorably 
known as the Translator and Annotator of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. 
Through his kindness, I am allowed the free use of a series of instructive lectures, 
(in MS.) formerly delivered by him as a professor of Ecclesiastical History, which 
having been subsequently modified to suit a popular audience, will present the whole 
of this learned matter, with the fullest details of the argument, in a form perfectly 
intelligible and acceptable to my readers. 

THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARLY FATHERS. 

"In the latter part of the first century, Clement, bishop of Rome, (Ep. I. 
ad Corinth, § 5,) speaks of Paul and Peter as persecuted, and as having be- 
come martyrs. But he does not say when, or where. — In the middle of the 
second century, Justin Martyr speaks of Simon Magus, his magic and his 
deification, at Rome ; but makes no mention of Peter's going to Rome, to 
combat him. Nor does any other Father, so far as I know, till after A. D. 
300. — About twenty years after Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, 
wrote his five books against the heretics ; in which he confutes them, by the 
testimony of those churches which/were said to have been founded imme- 
diately by the apostles. The following extract from him will fully illustrate 
that mode of reasoning, and also show us what Irenaeus knew of Peter's being 
at Rome. He says — ' The doctrine preached to all the world by the apostles, 
is now found in the church ; — as all may see if they are willing to learn ; and 
we are able to name the persons whom the apostles constituted the bishops 
of the churches, and their successors down to our times ; who have never 
taught or known any such doctrine as the heretics advance. Now if the 
apostles had been acquainted with [certain] recondite mysteries, which they 
taught privately, and only to such as were the most perfect, they would cer- 
tainly have taught them to those men to whom they committed the care of 
the churches ; for they required them to be very perfect and blameless in all 
things, whom they made their successors and substitutes in office ; — because, 
if they conducted aright, great advantage would result ; but if they should go 
wrong, immense evils would ensue. But, as it would be tedious, in the 
present work, to enumerate the successions in all the churches, I will men- 
tion but one, viz. the greatest, most ancient, and well-known by all, the church 
founded and established at Rome, by the two most glorious apostles, Peter 
and Paul. The faith of this church was the result of apostolic teaching, and 
the same as was every where preached ; and it has come down to us through 
a succession of bishops ; and by this example we confound all those who, in 
any manner, either from selfish views and vain glory, or from blindness to 
truth and erroneous belief, hold forth false doctrine. For with this church, 
on account of its superior pre-eminence, every other church, — that is, the true 
believers every where, — must agree ; because, in it has ever been preserved 
the doctrine derived immediately from the apostles, and which was every 
where propagated. The blessed apostles having founded and instructed this 
church, committed the episcopacy of it to Linus ; who is mentioned by Paul, 



246 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

in his epistle to Timothy. Anacletus succeeded Linus ; and after him, the 
third bishop from the apostles was Clement, who saw the apostles themselves, 
and conferred with them, while their preaching and instruction was still 
sounding in his ears.' Irenaeus then enumerates the succeeding bishops, 
down to Eleutherius, ' who,' he says, ' is now the twelfth bishop from the 
apostles.' In the preceding section, Irenaeus tells us that Matthew wrote his 
gospel ' while Peter and Paul were preaching, and founding the church at 
Rome.' Here is full and explicit testimony, that Paul and Peter, unitedly, 
preached and founded the church at Rome ; and that they constituted Linus 
the first bishop there. The language excludes both Peter and Paul, — and 
excludes both equally,— -from the episcopal chair at Rome. ' They com- 
mitted the episcopacy to Linus f who was the first bishop, as Clement was 
the third, and Eleutherius the twelfth. — Contemporary with Irenaeus was 
Dionysius, bishop of Corinth. In reply to a monitory letter from the Romish 
church, of which Eusebius (H. E. II. 25) has preserved an extract, Dionysius 
says — ' By this your excellent admonition, you have united in one the plant- 
ing, by Peter and Paul, of the Romans and Corinthians. For both of them 
coming to our Corinth, planted and instructed us ; — and in like manner, going 
to Italy together, — after teaching there, they became martyrs at the same 
time.' From this testimony we may learn how and when Peter went to 
Rome ; as well as what relation he sustained to the church there. He and 
Paul came to Corinth together ; and when they had regulated and instructed 
that church, they went on together to Italy, and did the same things at Rome 
as before at Corinth. Now this, if true, must have been after the captivity of 
Paul at Rome, mentioned in the book of Acts. For Paul never went directly 
from Corinth to Rome before that captivity, since he never was at Rome be- 
fore he was carried there a prisoner, in the year of Christ, 62. But, if released 
in the year 64, he might have visited Corinth afterwards, with Peter, and then 
have traveled with him to Rome. To the church of Rome, Peter and Paul 
sustained the same relation ; and that was the same as they had sustained to 
the church of Corinth, viz. that of apostolic teachers and founders, — not that 
of onniNARY bishops. That is, Peter was no more the bishop of Rome than 
Paul was ; and neither of them, any more the bishop of Rome than both were 
bishops of Corinth. Dionysius likewise, here affirms, that Peter and Paul 
suffered martyrdom c at the same time ;' and probably at Rome, where they 
last taught. — That Rome was the place is asserted by Caius, a Romish 
ecclesiastic, (about A.D. 200,) as quoted by Eusebius, (H. E. II. 25.) ' I am 
able,' says he, 'to show the trophies [the sepulchres] of the apostles. For 
if you will go to the Vatican, or along the Via Ostia, you will find the trophies 
of those who established this church.' 

" The next father, Clement of Alexandria, (about A. D. 200,) reports it as 
tradition, that Mark wrote his gospel at Rome, while Peter was preaching 
there. (Euseb. H. E. VI. 14.) — In the fore part of the third century, lived 
Tertullian, a fervid and learned writer. He assailed the heretics with the 
same argument as Irenaeus did. ' Run over,' says he, ' the apostolic churches, 
in which the chairs of apostles still preside in their places, and in which the 
autographs of their epistles are still read. If you are near to Italy, you have 
Rome, a witness for us ; and how blessed a church is that on which apostles 
poured out their whole doctrine, together with their blood ! where Peter 
equaled our Lord in his mode of suffering ; and where Paul was crowned 
with the exit of John the Baptist.' (de Praescript. c. 36.) In another work 
he says : ' Let us see what the Romans hold forth ; to whom Peter and Paul 
imparted the gospel sealed with their own blood.' (adv. Marcion, IV. c. 5.) 
Again he says : ' Neither is there a disparity between those whom John bap- 
tized in the Jordan, and Peter in the Tiber.' (de Baptismo.) He moreover 
testifies that Peter suffered in the reign of Nero, (Scorpiac. c. 15,) and that 
this apostle ordained Clement bishop of Rome. (Praescript. c. 32.)— In the 



247 

middle of the third century, Cyprian of Carthage, writing to the bishop of 
Rome, (Ep. 55, ad Cornel.) calls the church of Rome ' the principal church ;' 
and that where 'Peter's chair' was; — and 'whose faith was derived from 
apostolic preaching.' — In the end of the third century or the beginning of the 
fourth, Lactantids (Institt. L. IV. c. 21) speaks of 'Peter and Paul' as 
having wrought miracles, and uttered predictions at Rome ; and describes 
their prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem. And in his work on the 
Deaths of Persecutors, (chap. 2,) he says : ' During the reign of Nero, Peter 
came to Rome ; and having wrought several miracles by the power of God, 
which rested on him, he converted many to righteousness, and erected a faith- 
ful and abiding temple for God. This became known to Nero, who, learning 
that multitudes, not only at Rome, but in all other places, were abandoning 
idolatry and embracing the new religion, and being hurried on to all sorts of 
cruelty by his brutal tyranny, set himself, the first of all, to destroy this reli- 
gion, and to persecute the servants of God. So he ordered Peter to be cru- 
cified and Paul to be beheaded.' 

"I have now detailed every important testimony which I could find in the 
genuine works of the Fathers, in the three first centuries. The witnesses 
agree very well ; and they relate nothing but what may be true. They make 
Peter and Paul to go from Corinth to Rome, in company, during the reign of 
Nero ; and after preaching and strengthening the church at Rome, and ordain- 
ing Linus to be its first bishop, — both suffering martyrdom at Rome on the 
same day ; Peter being crucified and Paul decapitated. There is no repre- 
sentation of Peter's being any more bishop of Rome than Paul was ; — and 
Irenaeus in particular, expressly makes Linus the first bishop, and to be 
ordained by the two apostles. 

" We now come to Eusebius, who wrote about A. D. 325. He quotes most 
of the Fathers above cited, but departs widely from them in regard to the time, 
and the occasion, of Peter's going to Rome. He says it was in the reign of 
Claudius ; — and for the purpose of opposing Simon Magus, (as the Clemen- 
tine novels represented the matter.) Yet he does not make Peter to be bishop 
of Rome. The subsequent writers of the fourth and following centuries, agree 
with Eusebius as to the time and the occasion of Peter's going to Rome; and 
most of them make Peter to be the first bishop of Rome. According to them y 
Peter remained in Judea only about four years after the ascension ; then he 
was bishop of Antioch seven years, and in the second year of Claudius, A. D. 
43, removed his chair to Rome, where he was bishop for twenty -five years, or 
until his death, A. D. 68. And this is the account generally given by the 
papists, quite down to the present times. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE TRADITIONARY HISTORY OF PETER. 

" 1. So far as the later Fathers contradict those of the three first centu- 
ries, they ought to be rejected ; because, they could not have so good means of 
information. Oral tradition must, in three centuries, have become worthless, 
compared with what it was in the second and third centuries ; — and written 
testimony, which could be relied on, they had none, except that of the early 
Fathers. Besides, we have seen how these later Fathers were led astray. 
They believed the fable of Simon Magus's legerdemain at Rome, and his 
deification there. They read the Clementine fictions, and supposed them to 
be novels founded on facts. In their eulogies of Peter, they were fond of 
relating marvellous and affecting stories about him, and therefore too readily 
admitted fabulous traditions. And lastly, the bishops of Rome and their 
numerous adherents had a direct and an immense interest depending on this 
traditional history ; — for by it alone, they made out their succession to the 
chair of Peter, and the legitimacy of their ghostly power. 

"2. The later Fathers invalidate their own testimony, by stating what is 
incredible, and what neither they nor their modem adherents can satisfacto- 



248 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

rily explain. They state that Linus succeeded Peter, for about twelve years ; 
then followed Cletus or Anacletus, for about twelve years more ; and then 
succeeded Clement. And yet they tell us, ail the three were ordained by the 
hands of Peter. Kow could this be? Did Peter ordain three successive 
bishops, after he was dead ? — or did he resign his office to these bishops, and 
retire to a private station, more than twenty-five years before his crucifixion? 
No, says Epiphanius, (Haer. 27,) and after him most of the modern papists ; 
(Nat. Alex. H. E. saecul. I. Diss. XIII. Burius, &c.) but Peter being often 
absent from Rome, and having a vast weight of cares, had assistent bishops ; 
and Linus and Cletus were not the successors but the assistents of Peter. 
But Irenaeus, Eusebius, Jerome, and all the authorized catalogues of popes, 
explicitly make Linus and Cletus to be successors to Peter. Besides, why 
did Peter need an assistent any more than the succeeding pontiffs ? And 
what age since has ever witnessed an assistent pope at Rome ? A more plau- 
sible solution (but which the papists cannot admit) is given by Rufinus. 
(Praef. ad Recogn. Clem.) ' As I understand it,' says he, ' Linus and Cletus 
were the bishops of Rome in Peter's life-time ; so that they performed the 
episcopal functions, and he, those of an apostle. And, in this way the whole 
may be true,' says Rufinus. Granted, if this were the only objection; and if 
it could be made out that Peter went to Rome full twenty-four years before 
his martyrdom. But supposing it true, how can the successors of Linus and 
Cletus, the bishops, be successors of Peter, the apostle ? 

" 3. Peter removed his chair to Borne, (say the later Fathers and most of 
the Catholics,) in the second year of Claudius, that is, A. D. 43; and he re- 
sided there twenty-four years, or till his death. But we have the best proof, 
— that of holy writ, — that Peter was resident at Jerusalem, as late as the 
year A. D. 44 ; when king Agrippa seized him there, and imprisoned him, 
with intent to kill him. (Acts xii. 3 — 19.) And we have similar proof that 
he was still there in the year 51 ; when he deliberated and acted with the 
other apostles and brethren in Jerusalem, on the question of obliging Gentiles 
to observe the law of Moses. (Acts xv. 7, &c. ; Gal. ii. 1 — 9.) And more- 
over, some time after this, as Paul tells us, (Gal. ii. Jl — J 4,) he came to An- 
tioch, in Syria, and there dissembled about eating with the Gentiles. The 
common reply of the Catholics is, that Peter often made long journeys; and 
he might happen to be at Jerusalem, and at Antioch, at these times. But 
this solution is rejected by the more candid Romanists themselves, who agree 
with the early Fathers, asserting that Peter first went to Rome in the reign 
of Nero. (See Pagi Crit. Bar. ann. 43.) 

" 4. Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans in the year 59, as is supposed. 
And from this epistle it is almost certain, Peter was not then at Rome, and 
highly probable he had never been there. Throughout the epistle, Peter's 
name is not even mentioned ; nor is that of Linus or Cletus, his supposed as- 
sistents, who always, it is said, supplied his place when he was absent. 
Indeed, so far as can be gathered from Paul's epistle, the Romish Christians 
appear not to have had, at that time nor previously, any bishop or any eccle- 
siastical head. The epistle is addressed ' To all that be in Rome, beloved of 
God, called to be saints.' (Rom. i. 7.) It exhorts them to obey magistrates ; — 
but not to reverence and obey their spiritual rulers. (Rom. xiii. 1, &c.) It 
inculcates on them all, the duty of living in harmony, — of being modest and 
humble, — of using their different gifts for the common good ; (Rom. xii. 3, 
&c. ;) but gives no intimation that they were amenable to any ecclesiastical 
authorities. It gives them rules for conducting their disciplinary acts, as a 
popular body, (Rom. xiv. 1, &c. ;) but does not refer to any regulations given 
them by St. Peter and his assistents. It contains salutations to near thirty 
persons, male and female, whom Paul knew personally, or by hearsay, (chap, 
xvi. ;) but neither Peter, nor Linus, nor Cletus, is of the number; nor is any 
one spoken of as bishop, or elder, or pastor, or as clothed with any ecclesias- 



peter's apostleship. 249 

tical authority. Priscilla and Aquila, and several others whom he had known 
in Greece or Asia, are named; and seem to be the leading persons in the 
church. Indeed, it would seem that no apostle had, as yet, ever been at 
Rome. Paul says he had ' had a great desire, for many years,' to visit them, 
and he intended to do so as soon as possible. (Rom. xv. 23.) And he tells 
them why he longed to see them, that he might impart to them ' some spiritual 
gifts;' — that is, some of those miraculous gifts, which none but apostles 
could confer. (Rom. i. 11.) I may add, that Paul gives them a whole sys- 
tem of divinity in this epistle ; and crowds more theology into it, than into 
any other he ever wrote; — as if he considered this church as needing fun- 
damental instruction in the gospel, more than any other. Now, how could 
all this be, if Peter had been there fifteen years, with an assistent bishop to 
aid him ; and had completely organized, and regulated, and instructed this 
central church of all Christendom ? What Catholic bishop, at the present 
day, would dare to address the church of Rome without once naming his 
liege lord, the pope; and would give them a whole system of theology, and 
numerous rules and regulations for their private conduct and for their public 
discipline, without even an intimation that they had any spiritual guides and 
rulers, to whom they were accountable ? 

"5. Three years after this epistle was written, (that is, A. D. 62,) Paul 
arrived at Rome, and was there detailed a prisoner for two years, or until 
A. D. 64. Now let us see if we can find Peter there, at or during this period. 
When it was known at Rome that Paul was approaching the city, the Chris- 
tians there went twenty miles to meet him, and escort him ; — so eager were 
they to see an apostle of Jesus Christ. Three days after his arrival, ' Paul 
called the chief of the Jews together,' to have conversation with them. They 
had heard nothing against him, and they were glad to see him,— for they 
wished to hear more about the Christian sect; ' for,' said they, ' as concerning 
this sect, we know that it is every where spoken against ;' and ' we desire to 
hear of thee what thou thinkest.' (Acts xxviii. 22.) They appointed him a 
day, when they all assembled for the purpose, and he addressed them ' from 
morning till evening.' Now could Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, 
have been near twenty years bishop of Rome, and so full of business as to 
employ an assistent bishop, and yet the Jews there be so ignorant of Chris- 
tianity, and so glad to meet with one who could satisfy their curiosity to 
learn something about it ? Moreover, Paul now continued to preach the 
gospel in ■ his own hired house,' at Rome, for two years ; (Acts xxviii. 30, 
31 ;) and it would seem, was very successful. During this time he wrote his 
epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and, perhaps, 
that to the Hebrews. In these epistles he often speaks of his success in 
making converts, and of the brethren who labored with him ; — but he does 
not once even name Peter, or Linus, or Cletus, — or intimate, at all, that there 
was a cathedral church at Rome with an apostle or any bishop at its head. 
He sends numerous salutations from individuals whom he names, and from 
little companies of Christians in their houses, — but no salutations from Peter, 
or from any bishop, or other officer of the church there. The Catholics tell us, 
Peter might happen to be absent during this period. What ! absent two whole 
years ! and his assistent bishop also? Very negligent shepherds ! But where 
was the church all this time, — the enlightened Christian community, and the 
elders and deacons, who governed and instructed it, from Sabbath to Sabbath ? 
Were all these, too, gone a journey ? No : it is manifest Paul was now the only 
regular preacher of the gospel at Rome : and he was breaking up fallow ground, 
that had never before been cultivated, and sown, and made to bear fruit. 

" Such are the general objections to the general doctrine of the papists, 
and to the testimony of the Fathers of the fourth and following centuries, 
who make Peter to have removed to Rome, and to have been bishop there 
anterior to A. D. 64." ****** 



250 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

[Dr. Murdock next proceeds to remark on the testimony of the earlier Fathers 
respecting the point of Peter's having visited Rome at some later period ; but these 
remarks will come in place better at that part of the narrative where this final ques- 
tion is discussed.] 

Lardner also gives a sort of abstract of the passages in the Fathers, which refer to 
this subject, but not near so full, nor so just to the original passages, as that of Dr. 
Murdock, although he refers to a few authors not alluded to here, whose testimony, 
however, amounts to little or nothing. Lardner's disposition to believe all these long- 
established Roman fables, seems very great, and, on these points, his critical accuracy 
appears to fail in maintaining its general character. However, in the simple passage 
from Clemens Romanus, referred to above, he is very full, not only translating the 
whole passage relating to Peter and Paul, but entering into a very elaborate discus- 
sion of the views taken of it ; but after all he fails so utterly in rearing an historical 
argument on this slender basis, that I cannot feel called on, in this place, to do any 
thing more than barely refer the critical reader to the passage in his life of Peter, 
(VII.) Lardner's quotation from Clement will be fully discussed, however, in the 
concluding part of Peter's life. 

Bower has given numerous quotations, too, from those sources, but nothing not 
contained in the abstract above, of which a great merit is, that it gives all the pas- 
sages in full, in a faithful and highly expressive translation. (See Bower's Lives of 
the Popes. " Peter.") Cave also (Hist. Lit. pp. 7 — 11) makes a full statement of 
patristic testimony, and a long argument thereon, in favor of the Romanist view. 



THE CONSULTATION OF THE APOSTLES AT JERUSALEM. 

The last circumstance of Peter's life and actions, recorded in 
the Acts of the Apostles, is one so deeply involved also in the 
conduct of others of the holy band, that the history of the whole 
affair can be best given in connexion with their lives ; more espe- 
cially as the immediate occasion of it arose under the labors of 
these other persons. All the statement which is here necessary 
to introduce the part which Peter took in the sayings and doings 
on this occasion, is simply as follows. Paul and Barnabas, having 
returned to Antioch from their first great mission from that city, 
throughout almost the whole circuit of Asia Minor, were, soon 
after their arrival in that city, involved in a vexatious dispute with 
a set of persons, who, having come down from Jerusalem, had 
undertaken to give the Syrian Christians more careful instructions 
in the minuter essentials of religious duty, than they had received 
from those who had originally effected their conversion. These 
new teachers being directly from that holy city, which, having 
been the great scene of the instructions and sufferings of Jesus 
Christ, and still being the seat of the apostolic college, was re- 
garded by all as the true source of religious light to Christians 
as well as Jews throughout the world, therefore made no small 
commotion in the church of Antioch, when they began to incul- 
cate, as essential to salvation, a full conformity to all the minute 
ritual observances of the Mosaic law. The church of Antioch, 
having been planted and taught by men of a more catholic spirit, 



251 

had gathered within itself a large number of heathen from that 
Gentile city, who, led by their convictions of the truth and spirit- 
uality of the Christian faith, had renounced entirely all the idola- 
tries in which they had been brought up, giving themselves, as 
it would seem, with honest resolution, to a life of such moral 
purity, as they considered alone essential to the maintenance of 
their new religious character. Still, they had never supposed, 
that in renouncing their idolatrous superstitions, they had bound 
themselves to throw off also those customs of their country which 
could have no connexion with moral purity of conduct, and had 
therefore still remained in national peculiarities, Gentiles ; though 
in creed, and religious practice, Christians. In this course they 
had been encouraged by the liberal and enlarged views of their 
religious instructors, who had never once hinted at the necessity 
of imposing upon Gentile Christians the burden of the Jewish law, 
which all the impressions of education and their previous habits of 
life would have made quite intolerable. The wisdom of this en- 
lightened spirit was seen in the great accessions of Gentiles, who, 
being convinced of the necessity of a moral change, were not met 
by any ceremonial impediments to the full adoption of a pure 
religion. Paul and Barnabas were therefore not a little troubled 
with the new difficulty brought in by these Jewish teachers, who, 
being fresh from the fountain of religious knowledge, claimed great 
authority in reference to all delicate points of this nature. At last, 
after long and violent disputes between these old-school and new- 
school theologians, it was resolved to refer the whole matter to the 
twelve apostles themselves, at Jerusalem, who might well be sup- 
posed qualified to say what they considered to be the essential 
doctrines and observances of Christianity. Paul and Barnabas, 
therefore, with some of the rest engaged in the discussion, went 
up to Jerusalem as a delegation, for this purpose, and presented 
the whole difficulty to the consideration of the apostles and elders. 
So little settled, after all, were the views and feelings of these first 
preachers of Christianity about the degree of freedom to be en- 
joyed by the numerous Gentile converts, that all the Jewish pre- 
judices of many of them burst out at once, and high ground was 
taken against any dispensation in favor of Gentile prejudices. 
After a long discussion, in full assembly of both apostles and 
church-officers, Peter arose in the midst of the debate, taking the 
superiority to which his peculiar commission and his long prece- 
dence among them entitled him, and in a tone of dignified decision 
34 



252 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

addressed them. He reminded them, in the first place, of that un- 
questionable call by which God had chosen him from among all 
the apostles, to proclaim to the heathen the word of the gospel, 
and of that solemn sign by which God had attested the complete- 
ness of their conversion, knowing, as he did, the hearts of all his 
creatures. The signs of the Holy Spirit having been imparted to 
the heathen converts with the same perfection of regenerating 
influence that had been manifested in those of the Jewish faith 
who had believed, it was manifestly challenging the testimony of 
God himself, to try to put on them the irksome yoke of the tedious 
Mosaic ritual, a yoke which not even the Jewish disciples, nor their 
fathers before them, had been able to bear in all the appointed 
strictness of its observances ; and much less, then, could they 
expect a burden so intolerable, to be supported by those to whom 
it had none of the sanctions of national and educational prejudice, 
which so much assisted its dominion over the feelings of the Jews. 
And all the disciples, even those of the Jewish race, must be per- 
fectly satisfied that their whole reliance for salvation should be, 
not on any legal conformity, but on that common favor of their 
Lord, Jesus Christ, in which the Gentile converts also trusted. 

Chosen him. (Acts xv. 7.)— This passage has been the subject of much discussion, 
but I have given a free translation which disagrees with no one of the views of its 
literal force. The fairest opinion of the matter is, that the expression s^Xe^aro iv fyuV, 
(exelexato en hemin,) is a Hebraism. (See Vorstius and others quoted by Bloom- 
field.) 

Challenge the testimony of God. — This is the substance of Kuinoel's ideas of the 
force of this passage, (Acts xv. 10,) Tretpa^re rdv Qedv, (peirdzete ton Theon.) His 
words are — " Tentare Deum dicuntur, qui veritatem, omnipotentiam, omniscientiam, 
etc. Dei in dubium vocare, vel nova divinae potentiae ac voluntatis documenta de- 
siderant, adeoque Deo obnituntur." — " Those are said to tempt God who call in ques- 
tion God's truth, omnipotence, omniscience, &c, or demand new evidence of the 
divine power or will, and thus strive against God." He quotes Pott and Schleusner 
in support of this view of the passage. Rosenmliller and Bloomfield take the same 
view, as well as many others quoted by the latter and by Poole. Bloomfield is very 
full on the whole of Peter's speech, and on all the discussion, with the occasions 
of it. 

This logically clear statement of the whole difficulty, supported 
by the decisive authority of the chief of the apostles, most effect- 
ually hushed all discussion at once ; and the whole assembly kept 
silence, while Paul and Barnabas recounted the extent and success 
of their labors. After they had finished, James, as the leader of 
the Mosaic faction, arose and expressed his own perfect acquies- 
cence in the decision of Simon Peter, and proposed an arrange- 
ment for a dispensation in favor of the Gentile converts, perfectly 
satisfactory to all. This conclusion, establishing the correctness of 
the tolerant and accommodating views of the chief apostle, ended 



peter's apostleship. 253 

the business in a prudent manner, the details of which will be 
given in the lives of those more immediately concerned in the re- 
sults. 



The historian of the Acts of the Apostles, after the narration 
of the preceding occurrence, makes no farther allusion to Peter ; 
devoting himself wholly to the account of the far more extensive 
labors of Paul and his companions, so that for the remaining re- 
cords of Peter's life, reference must be had to other sources. 
These sources, however, are but few, and the results of inquiries 
into them must be very brief. 

From some passages in the first part of Paul's epistle to the 
Galatians, in which he gives an account of his previous inter- 
course with the twelve apostles, having mentioned his own visit 
to Jerusalem and its results, as just described above, he speaks of 
Peter as coming down to Antioch, soon after, where his conduct, 
in some particulars, was such as to meet the very decided repre- 
hension of Paul. On his first arrival in that Gentile city, Peter, 
in accordance with the liberal views taught him by the revelation 
at Joppa and Caesarea, mingled, without scruple, among all classes 
of believers in Christ, claiming their hospitalities and all the 
pleasures of social intercourse, making no distinction between 
those of Jewish and of heathen origin. But in a short time, a 
company of persons came down from Jerusalem, sent particularly 
by James, no doubt with a reference to some especial observations 
on the behavior of the chief apostle, to see how it accorded with 
the Jerusalem standard of demeanor towards those, whom, by the 
Mosaic law, he must consider improper persons for the familiar 
intercourse of a Jew. Peter, probably knowing that they were 
disposed to notice his conduct critically on these matters of cere- 
monial punctilio, prudently determined to quiet these censors by 
avoiding all occasion for any collision with their prejudices. Be- 
fore their arrival, he had mingled freely with the Grecian and 
Syrian members of the Christian community, eating with them, 
and conforming to their customs as far as was convenient for un- 
restrained social intercourse. But he now withdrew himself from 
their society, and kept himself much more retired than when free 
from critical observation. The sharp-eyed Paul, on noticing this 
sudden change in Peter's habits, immediately attacked him with 
his characteristic boldness, charging him with unworthy dissimu- 



254 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

lation, in thus accommodating his behavior to the whims of these 
sticklers for Judaical strictness of manners. The common sup- 
position has been, that Peter was here wholly in the wrong, and 
Paul wholly in the right : a conclusion by no means justified by 
what is known of the facts, and of the characters of the persons 
concerned. Peter was a much older man than Paul, and much 
more disposed, by his cooler blood, to prudent and careful measures. 
His long personal intercourse with Jesus himself, also gave him a 
great advantage over Paul, in judging of what would be the con- 
duct in such a case most conformable to the spirit of his divine 
Master ; nor was his behavior marked by any thing discordant 
with real honesty. The precept of Christ was — " Be wise as ser- 
pents ;" and a mere desire to avoid offending an over-scrupulous 
brother in a trifling matter, implied no more wariness than that 
divine maxim inculcated, and was, moreover, in the spirit of what 
Paul himself enjoined in very similar cases, in advising to avoid 
" offending a brother by eating meat which had been offered in 
sacrifice to idols." There is no scriptural authority to favor the 
opinion that Peter ever acknowledged he was wrong ; for all that 
Paul says is — " I rebuked him," — but he does not say what effect 
it had on one who was an older and a wiser man than his reprover, 
and quite as likely to be guided by the Spirit of Truth ; nor is it wise 
or just for presuming moderns to condemn Peter in this matter 
without a hearing. The decision which seems safest to the ra- 
tional defender of Peter is, that he had good reasons for his own 
conduct, which he doubtless was not slow to give his youthful 
reprover ; and his answer might, if recorded, have thrown much 
new light on this controversy. It is probable, certainly, that Peter 
had something to say for himself ; since it is quite discordant with 
all common ideas, to suppose that a great apostle would, in the 
face of those who looked up to him as a source of eternal truth, 
act a part which implied an unjustifiable practical falsehood. After 
all, the difference seems to have been on a point of very trifling 
importance, connected merely with the ceremonials of familiar in- 
tercourse, between individuals of nations widely different in man- 
ners, habits, prejudices, and the whole tenor of their feelings, as 
far as country, language, and education would affect them ; and 
a fair consideration of the whole difficulty, by modern ethical 
standards, will do much to justify Peter in a course designed to 
avoid unnecessary occasions of quarrel, until the slow operations 
of time should have worn away all these national prejudices, 



255 

— the rigid sticklers quietly accommodating themselves to the 
neglect of ceremonies, which experience would prove perfectly 
impracticable among those professing the free faith of Christ. 

Except this fact thus incidentally derived from Paul's epistle, 
not one circumstance of Peter's residence in Antioch has been re- 
corded, or in any way brought to the knowledge of later times. 
The only reasonable inference, however, from the statements of 
Paul is — that this was a mere visit to the capital of Syria, and not 
a prolonged residence in it. His object was probably to satisfy 
himself, personally, as to the condition of the new church which 
had there sprung up and grown to a flourishing prosperity under 
circumstances so peculiar. The doctrines of the faith of Jesus 
had there been presented under new forms, to a new class of con- 
verts, with new exemptions from religious ceremonials, and by a 
set of teachers who were wholly without the advantage of the 
personal instructions of Jesus. Peter was entitled, moreover, to 
a special interest in the prosperity and spiritual soundness of the 
Syrian churches, from the circumstance that in the grand consul- 
tation held by the apostles, on the question of enforcing Mosaical 
observances among the Gentile converts, he had taken strong 
ground in favor of affording liberal indulgences to them in mere 
ceremonials, except so far as breaches of Judaical purity might be 
connected with practical morality. The maintenance of a blame- 
less moral standard among the Syrian Christians was therefore 
highly important to the support and permanent adoption of the 
truly catholic and accommodating principles advanced by Peter, 
in the noble speech by which he decided the question at the Jeru- 
salem dispute. To assure himself of this moral soundness among 
the brethren at Antioch, and to assure them still farther of the 
perfect simplicity of the truth as it was in Jesus, and of the ac- 
commodating tolerance extended by the free spirit of the gospel to 
its adopted and adopting children — must therefore have been amorg 
the main motives of this apostolic visit of the great chief to An- 
tioch. 

> Here would be the place for introducing the somewhat amusing details of the ficti- 
tious narrative given by the Romish fable-mongers, of the history of Peter's residence 
at Antioch ; but the ultimate results of such a fabulous conceit would hardly reward 
the labor and expense of transcription ; more especially since as many specimens of 
these inventions have been given as the claims of historical truth and other more 
valuable matter will allow within the denned limits of this work. It is worth while 
just to state, however, that the common fable represents Peter as residing for seven 
years at Antioch, after having there founded the Antiochene church, over which he 
was supposed to have presided in the episcopal character during all this period. It 



256 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

will, however, be observed at once, that the idea of his founding the church of An- 
tioch is wholly inconsistent with the view above taken of the order of events. I 
have considered Peter's visit to Antioch as occurring after his escape from the prison 
of Herod Agrippa, and also after his return from those regions of Arabia and Par- 
thia, in which I found reason to fix his probable place of refuge from Roman and 
Jewish persecution, until the death of his royal oppressor had again made the pro- 
vinces of the Roman empire safe for the chief apostle of Jesus. Other writers, how- 
ever, Protestant as well as Papist, have seen fit to arrange this Syrian journey before 
his imprisonment by Herod Agrippa, and make it a part of that apostolic survey (re- 
corded in Acts viii. 32, &c.) in which he visited Lydda, Joppa, and Caesarea, as well 
as Samaria. To this supposition it is enough to reply, that the profound silence of 
Luke, as to any such remarkable extension of this journey, is of itself strong proof 
against the probabilities of such a long tour. Luke is quite precise about what seem 
to have been the important incidents of this survey ; and it seems palpable that if it 
had been extended north of Samaria, or, at any rate, beyond the bounds of Palestine, 
such a grand incident in the apostolic course could not have been thus overlooked or 
suppressed by the otherwise faithful historian of the Acts of the Apostles. The no- 
tion of a seven years' residence in Antioch during this absence from Jerusalem, is 
aisc discountenanced by the manner in which the time seems to be alluded to by 
Lube. (Acts ix., x., xi.) Others, maintaining the general notion that Peter visited 
Antioch before his persecution by Agrippa, have more reasonably supposed that it 
might have happened between the conclusion of the apostolic survey of northern and 
western Palestine, and the imprisonment above mentioned. But the account of the 
original, primary preaching of the gospel and founding of the church in Antioch, 
(given in Acts xi. 19 — 22,) and the subsequent statements of what was evidently 
the very first apostolic communication to the Syrian and other Gentile churches, 
(that by Barnabas, Acts xi. 22, 23,) are wholly at war with both, and all the supposi- 
tions ;hat place Peter's visit to Antioch anterior to the complete foundation and sub- 
sequent confirmation of the church there by Barnabas and Saul. 

The date of this visit according to the arrangement here made of the facts, cannot 
be fixed from the events of Peter's life with any definiteness. The closest approxi- 
mation that can be made to the time by such inferences, is — that it must have occur- 
red between A. D. 42, (the year of Peter's escape, according to Pagi's corrections 
of Baronius's chronology,) and A. D. 65, which is the next date that can be fixed in 
Peter's life. (Vide infra.) But though the inferences to be drawn from the known 
dates of Peter's life, leave us with a range of twenty years for the period of this oc- 
currence, yet from its connexion with events in the life of Paul, a much closer ap- 
proximation can be made. These means will fix it in the year 48 or 49. Cave (Hist. 
Lit p. 4) says A. D. 48; Pearson (Annal. Paulin.) says A. D. 50; Baillet (Vies des 
Saints) gives it A. D. 51. (A fuller discussion of the minuter proofs of this date will 
be needed in the corresponding passage of Paul's life.) Baronius, however, taking 
for granted the notion of Peter's having visited Antioch before the apostolic consulta- 
tion at Jerusalem, boldly dates it in A. D. 39, (corrected by Pagi to A. D. 37.) Nata- 
lis Alexander gives A. D. 38, following in the same error. 

Besides the great names quoted above in support of the arrangement of facts and 
daes here adopted, the valuable authority of Louis Cappel and Witsius may be men- 
tioned. To these I may safely add, in the general way, the great mass of modern 
commentators and critics who have alluded to this point. Indeed the argument above 
drawn from the order of narration in Acts, is enough, — even without Paul's direct 
statement, (in Galatians ii. 11, 12,) that this visit to Antioch actually did occur after 
ths consultation at Jerusalem, (Galat. ii. 4— 10,)— to set the point beyond all contest. 

HIS RETURN EASTWARD. 

Peter's stay in Syria was undoubtedly short. The object of his 
visit to Antioch was probably temporary ; and after satisfying him- 
self of the condition of the church there, whose truly catholic 
principles of communion had been adopted in consequence of his 
own earnest argument in their behalf, he would see comparatively 
little occasion for prolonging his efforts in a field for which other 



257 

laborers especially fitted, and naturally endowed with faculties for 
instructing and converting Greeks, above his highest gifts, had 
been peculiarly consecrated by the original apostles, and by the 
Holy Spirit. He must therefore have soon returned to Jerusalem. 
But in that city, the occasions and the motives of apostolic labor 
were each moment becoming fewer. The fortunes of the Jewish 
nation were now on the decline ; the better days of its last age 
were over. The moderate and gentle rule of Petronius and the 
best of the Herodian princes had been displaced by the harsh and 
merciless visitations of the worst of imperial minions, whose ava- 
ricious exactions and wanton abuses were each day goading the 
sullen rage of the people to the point of desperation. The moral 
condition of a nation subjected to the operation of these malignant 
agencies, could not be such as to encourage the attempt to advance 
among them the mild principles of universal peace and charity. 
Under these circumstances, the apostles, doubly forewarned of 
coming evils, by the signs of the times, and by the prophecy of 
their Lord, must have been so far influenced by the increasing and 
threatening commotions that were gathering around them in Pa- 
lestine, as to turn their eyes to new fields of labor. During the 
administrations of Fadus, Alexander, Cumanus, Felix, Festus, 
Albinus, and Florus, the just causes of national indignation went 
on steadily multiplying, each new governor adding some new oc- 
casion of excitement, till at last it became manifest that the bounds 
of human endurance must soon be passed, and that the wrath of 
a nation thus roused would burst forth with a fury and a madness 
that would insure their own ruin and the utter desolation of their 
land, by a conflict with a power whose energies, in that region, 
were then scarcely short of earthly omnipotence. Sedition fol- 
lowed sedition, through a period of many years, before the actual 
opening of the last fatal struggle, serving as a premonition so 
marked, that the few who remained free from the national fanati- 
cism could not have avoided the conviction of the certainty of 
coming national ruin. 

Where then should the peaceful few find rest from the horrors 
and tumults, whose very beginnings they now felt ? Where should 
the apostles of the faith of Christ find hearers, whose language, 
sympathies, and religion, would present the most natural motives 
and facilities for the inculcation of their peaceful doctrines ? The 
whole of the farther east was already thronged with a Jewish 
population, — peaceful emigrants and refugees from the various 



258 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

local disturbances that had so long agitated their father-land ; and 
thither the missionary enterprise of the original Galilean apos- 
tles must have been most readily directed, — debarred as they were 
from Hellenic and Roman fields, by natural and national disabili- 
ties, as well as by the pre-occupation of that department by the 
apostles who were peculiarly devoted to the gospel of the uncircum- 
cision. But, as Paul testifies to the Galatians, " to Peter was com- 
mitted the gospel of the circumcision." The subjects of his 
ministry were therefore to be sought and found in that part of the 
world to which Hellenic colonization and Roman conquest had not 
yet been extended, so far as to influence them to the adoption 
of Grecian language, or of Latin civil institutions ; but, still in the 
enjoyment of Oriental customs, language, and independence, they 
presented the fairest subjects for a revelation more especially ad- 
dressed, in its original form, to those of Hebrew race. 

HIS RESIDENCE IN BABYLON. 

The eastern bounds of the Roman empire were seldom well 
defined, varying with the results of doubtful warfare waged with 
the dwellers of the wilds and deserts which spread from the west- 
ern provinces of Palestine to the verge of ancient Chaldea. " The 
great river Euphrates," which, in the northern part of its course, 
makes a vast western circuit of many hundred miles, coming 
within the long-established boundaries of the Roman empire, far- 
ther south bends eastward, retreating within regions that had owned 
only an oriental sway. The lands thus cut off from the incur- 
sions of Roman conquest were remarkable as the early seat of 
Oriental empire, which springing up around the southern Eu- 
phrates, where it approaches the Tigris, long made these the centre 
of a sway which ruled from the Mediterranean to the Indus. 
Passing from Assyrian to Chaldean, from Chaldean to Mede and 
Persian, and from Persian to Macedonian, thenceforth the regions 
of the farther east, with great Babylon as a centre of dominion, 
remained subject only to a native empire. The feeble and failing 
sway of the Seleucid was soon swept from these regions by the 
rise and spread of the Parthian power, which originating in north- 
ern Persia, soon obtained over all the original Median empire a 
dominion which western conquerors for centuries vainly endeavored 
to uproot. Babylon, under the Parthians, ceased indeed to be the 
capital of the east ; but though fallen from so much of its ancient 
splendor and power, still continued a city of great wealth and 



251 

had gathered within itself a large number of heathen from that 
Gentile city, who, led by their convictions of the truth and spirit- 
uality of the Christian faith, had renounced entirely all the idola- 
tries in which they had been brought up, giving themselves, as 
it would seem, with honest resolution, to a life of such moral 
purity, as they considered alone essential to the maintenance of 
their new religious character. Still, they had never supposed, 
that in renouncing their idolatrous superstitions, they had bound 
themselves to throw off also those customs of their country which 
could have no connexion with moral purity of conduct, and had 
therefore still remained in national peculiarities, Gentiles ; though 
in creed, and religious practice, Christians. In this course they 
had been encouraged by the liberal and enlarged views of their 
religious instructors, who had never once hinted at the necessity 
of imposing upon Gentile Christians the burden of the Jewish law, 
which all the impressions of education and their previous habits of 
life would have made quite intolerable. The wisdom of this en- 
lightened spirit was seen in the great accessions of Gentiles, who, 
being convinced of the necessity of a moral change, were not met 
by any ceremonial impediments to the full adoption of a pure 
religion. Paul and Barnabas were therefore not a little troubled 
with the new difficulty brought in by these Jewish teachers, who, 
being fresh from the fountain of religious knowledge, claimed great 
authority in reference to all delicate points of this nature. At last, 
after long and violent disputes between these old-school and new- 
school theologians, it was resolved to refer the whole matter to the 
twelve apostles themselves, at Jerusalem, who might well be sup- 
posed qualified to say what they considered to be the essential 
doctrines and observances of Christianity. Paul and Barnabas, 
therefore, with some of the rest engaged in the discussion, went 
up to Jerusalem as a delegation, for this purpose, and presented 
the whole difficulty to the consideration of the apostles and elders. 
So little settled, after all, were the views and feelings of these first 
preachers of Christianity about the degree of freedom to be en- 
joyed by the numerous Gentile converts, that all the Jewish pre- 
judices of many of them burst out at once, and high ground was 
taken against any dispensation in favor of Gentile prejudices. 
After a long discussion, in full assembly of both apostles and 
church-officers, Peter arose in the midst of the debate, taking the. 
superiority to which his peculiar commission and his long prece- 
dence among them entitled him, and in a tone of dignified decision 
34 



252 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

addressed them. He reminded them, in the first place, of that un- 
questionable call by which God had chosen him from among all 
the apostles, to proclaim to the heathen the word of the gospel, 
and of that solemn sign by which God had attested the complete- 
ness of their conversion, knowing, as he did, the hearts of all his 
creatures. The signs of the Holy Spirit having been imparted to 
the heathen converts with the same perfection of regenerating 
influence that had been manifested in those of the Jewish faith 
who had believed, it was manifestly challenging the testimony of 
God himself, to try to put on them the irksome yoke of the tedious 
Mosaic ritual, a yoke which not even the Jewish disciples, nor their 
fathers before them, had been able to bear in all the appointed 
strictness of its observances ; and much less, then, could they 
expect a burden so intolerable, to be supported by those to whom 
it had none of the sanctions of national and educational prejudice, 
which so much assisted its dominion over the feelings of the Jews. 
And all the disciples, even those of the Jewish race, must be per- 
fectly satisfied that their whole reliance for salvation should be, 
not on any legal conformity, but on that common favor of their 
Lord, Jesus Christ, in which the Gentile converts also trusted. 

Chosen him. (Acts xv. 7.) — This passage has been the subject of much discussion, 
but I have given a free translation which disagrees with no one of the views of its 
literal force. The fairest opinion of the matter is, that the expression e^Xe^aro tv ^iv, 
(exelexato en hemin,) is a Hebraism. (See Vorstius and others quoted by Bloom- 
field.) 

Challenge the testimony of God. — This is the substance of Kuinoel's ideas of the 
force of this passage, (Acts xv. 10,) mipd^ere rdv Qedv, (peirdzete ton Theon.) His 
words are — " Tentare Deum dicuntur, qui veritatem, omnipotentiam, omniscientiam, 
etc. Dei in dubium vocare, vel nova divinae potentiae ac voluntatis documenta de- 
siderant, adeoque Deo obnituntur." — " Those are said to tempt God who call in ques- 
tion God's truth, omnipotence, omniscience, &c, or demand new evidence of the 
divine power or will, and thus strive against God." He quotes Pott and Schleusner 
in support of this view of the passage. Rosenmuller and Bloomfield take the same 
view, as well as many others quoted by the latter and by Poole. Bloomfield is very 
full on the whole of Peter's speech, and on all the discussion, with the occasions 
of it. 

This logically clear statement of the whole difficulty, supported 
by the decisive authority of the chief of the apostles, most effect- 
ually hushed all discussion at once ; and the whole assembly kept 
silence, while Paul and Barnabas recounted the extent and success 
of their labors. After they had finished, James, as the leader of 
the Mosaic faction, arose and expressed his own perfect acquies- 
cence in the decision of Simon Peter, and proposed an arrange- 
ment for a dispensation in favor of the Gentile converts, perfectly 
satisfactory to all. This conclusion, establishing the correctness of 
the tolerant and accommodating views of the chief apostle, ended 



peter's apostleship. 253 

the business in a prudent manner, the details of which will be 
given in the lives of those more immediately concerned in the re- 
sults. 



The historian of the Acts of the Apostles, after the narration 
of the preceding occurrence, makes no farther allusion to Peter ; 
devoting himself wholly to the account of the far more extensive 
labors of Paul and his companions, so that for the remaining re- 
cords of Peter's life, reference must be had to other sources. 
These sources, however, are but few, and the results of inquiries 
into them must be very brief. 

From some passages in the first part of Paul's epistle to the 
Galatians, in which he gives an account of his previous inter- 
course with the twelve apostles, having mentioned his own visit 
to Jerusalem and its results, as just described above, he speaks of 
Peter as coming down to Antioch, soon after, where his conduct, 
in some particulars, was such as to meet the very decided repre- 
hension of Paul. On his first arrival in that Gentile city, Peter, 
in accordance with the liberal views taught him by the revelation 
at Joppa and Caesarea, mingled, without scruple, among all classes 
of believers in Christ, claiming their hospitalities and all the 
pleasures of social intercourse, making no distinction between 
those of Jewish and of heathen origin. But in a short time, a 
company of persons came down from Jerusalem, sent particularly 
by James, no doubt with a reference to some especial observations 
on the behavior of the chief apostle, to see how it accorded with 
the Jerusalem standard of demeanor towards those, whom, by the 
Mosaic law, he must consider improper persons for the familiar 
intercourse of a Jew. Peter, probably knowing that they were 
disposed to notice his conduct critically on these matters of cere- 
monial punctilio, prudently determined to quiet these censors by 
avoiding all occasion for any collision with their prejudices. Be- 
fore their arrival, he had mingled freely with the Grecian and 
Syrian members of the Christian community, eating with them, 
and conforming to their customs as far as was convenient for un- 
restrained social intercourse. But he now withdrew himself from 
their society, and kept himself much more retired than when free 
from critical observation. The sharp-eyed Paul, on noticing this 
sudden change in Peter's habits, immediately attacked him with 
his characteristic boldness, charging him with unworthy dissimu- 



254 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

lation, in thus accommodating his behavior to the whims of these 
sticklers for Judaical strictness of manners. The common sup- 
position has been, that Peter was here wholly in the wrong, and 
Paul wholly in the right : a conclusion by no means justified by 
what is known of the facts, and of the characters of the persons 
concerned. Peter was a much older man than Paul, and much 
more disposed, by his cooler blood, to prudent and careful measures. 
His long personal intercourse with Jesus himself, also gave him a 
great advantage over Paul, in judging of what would be the con- 
duct in such a case most conformable to the spirit of his divine 
Master ; nor was his behavior marked by any thing discordant 
with real honesty. The precept of Christ was — " Be wise as ser- 
pents ;" and a mere desire to avoid offending an over-scrupulous 
brother in a trifling matter, implied no more wariness than that 
divine maxim inculcated, and was, moreover, in the spirit of what 
Paul himself enjoined in very similar cases, in advising to avoid 
" offending a brother by eating meat which had been offered in 
sacrifice to idols." There is no scriptural authority to favor the 
opinion that Peter ever acknowledged he was wrong ; for all that 
Paul says is — " I rebuked him," — but he does not say what effect 
it had on one who was an older and a wiser man than his reprover, 
and quite as likely to be guided by the Spirit of Truth ; nor is it wise 
or just for presuming moderns to condemn Peter in this matter 
without a hearing. The decision which seems safest to the ra- 
tional defender of Peter is, that he had good reasons for his own 
conduct, which he doubtless was not slow to give his youthful 
reprover ; and his answer might, if recorded, have thrown much 
new light on this controversy. It is probable, certainly, that Peter 
had something to say for himself ; since it is quite discordant with 
all common ideas, to suppose that a great apostle would, in the 
face of those who looked up to him as a source of eternal truth, 
act a part which implied an unjustifiable practical falsehood. After 
all, the difference seems to have been on a point of very trifling 
importance, connected merely with the ceremonials of familiar in- 
tercourse, between individuals of nations widely different in man- 
ners, habits, prejudices, and the whole tenor of their feelings, as 
far as country, language, and education would affect them ; and 
a fair consideration of the whole difficulty, by modern ethical 
standards, will do much to justify Peter in a course designed to 
avoid unnecessary occasions of quarrel, until the slow operations 
of time should have worn away all these national prejudices, 



255 

— the rigid sticklers quietly accommodating themselves to the 
neglect of ceremonies, which experience would prove perfectly 
impracticable among those professing the free faith of Christ. 

Except this fact thus incidentally derived from Paul's epistle, 
not one circumstance of Peter's residence in Antioch has been re- 
corded, or in any way brought to the knowledge of later times. 
The only reasonable inference, however, from the statements of 
Paul is — that this was a mere visit to the capital of Syria, and not 
a prolonged residence in it. His object was probably to satisfy 
himself, personally, as to the condition of the new church which 
had there sprung up and grown to a flourishing prosperity under 
circumstances so peculiar. The doctrines of the faith of Jesus 
had there been presented under new forms, to a new class of con- 
verts, with new exemptions from religious ceremonials, and by a 
set of teachers who were wholly without the advantage of the 
personal instructions of Jesus. Peter was entitled, moreover, to 
a special interest in the prosperity and spiritual soundness of the 
Syrian churches, from the circumstance that in the grand consul- 
tation held by the apostles, on the question of enforcing Mosaical 
observances among the Gentile converts, he had taken strong 
ground in favor of affording liberal indulgences to them in mere 
ceremonials, except so far as breaches of Judaical purity might be 
connected with practical morality. The maintenance of a blame- 
less moral standard among the Syrian Christians was therefore 
highly important to the support and permanent adoption of the 
truly catholic and accommodating principles advanced by Peter, 
in the noble speech by which he decided the question at the Jeru- 
salem dispute. To assure himself of this moral soundness among 
the brethren at Antioch, and to assure them still farther of the 
perfect simplicity of the truth as it was in Jesus, and of the ac- 
commodating tolerance extended by the free spirit of the gospel to 
its adopted and adopting children — must therefore have been among 
the main motives of this apostolic visit of the great chief to An- 
tioch. 

Here would be the place for introducing the somewhat amusing details of the ficti- 
tious narrative given by the Romish fable-mongers, of the history of Peter's residence 
at Antioch ; but the ultimate results of such a fabulous conceit would hardly reward 
the labor and expense of transcription ; more especially since as many specimens of 
these inventions have been given as the claims of historical truth and other more 
valuable matter will allow within the defined limits of this work. It is worth while 
just to state, however, that the common fable represents Peter as residing for seven 
years at Antioch, after having there founded the Antiochene church, over which he 
was supposed to have presided in the episcopal character during all this period. It 



256 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

will, however, be observed at once, that the idea of his founding the church of An- 
tioch is wholly inconsistent with the view above taken of the order of events. I 
have considered Peter's visit to Antioch as occurring after his escape from the prison 
of Herod Agrippa, and also after his return from those regions of Arabia and Par- 
thia, in which I found reason to fix his probable place of refuge from Roman and 
Jewish persecution, until the death of his royal oppressor had again made the pro- 
vinces of the Roman empire safe for the chief apostle of Jesus. Other writers, how- 
ever, Protestant as well as Papist, have seen fit to arrange this Syrian journey before 
his imprisonment by Herod Agrippa, and make it a part of that apostolic survey (re- 
corded in Acts viii. 32, &c.) in which he visited Lydda, Joppa, and Caesarea,as well 
as Samaria. To this supposition it is enough to reply, that the profound silence of 
Luke, as to any such remarkable extension of this journey, is of itself strong proof 
against the probabilities of such a long tour. Luke is quite precise about what seem 
to have been the important incidents of this survey; and it seems palpable that if it 
had been extended north of Samaria, or, at any rate, beyond the bounds of Palestine, 
such a grand incident in the apostolic course could not have been thus overlooked or 
suppressed by the otherwise faithful historian of the Acts of the Apostles. The no- 
tion of a seven years' residence in Antioch during this absence from Jerusalem, is 
also discountenanced by the manner in which the time seems to be alluded to by 
Luke. (Acts ix., x., xi.) Others, maintaining the general notion that Peter visited 
Antioch before his persecution by Agrippa, have more reasonably supposed that it 
might have happened between the conclusion of the apostolic survey of northern and 
western Palestine, and the imprisonment above mentioned. But the account of the 
original, primary preaching of the gospel and founding of the church in Antioch, 
(given in Acts xi. 19 — 22.) and the subsequent statements of what "was evidently 
the very first apostolic communication to the Syrian and other Gentile churches, 
(that by Barnabas, Acts xi. 22, 23,) are wholly at war with both, and all the supposi- 
tions that place Peter's visit to Antioch anterior to the complete foundation and sub- 
sequent confirmation of the church there by Barnabas and Saul. 

The date of this visit according to the arrangement here made of the facts, cannot 
be fixed from the events of Peter's life with any defmiteness. The closest approxi- 
mation that can be made to the time by such inferences, is — that it must have occur- 
red between A. D. 42, (the year of Peter's escape, according to Pagi's corrections 
of Baronius's chronology,) and A. D. 65, which is the next date that can be fixed in 
Peter's life. (Vide infra.) But though the inferences to be drawn from the known 
dates of Peter's life, leave us with a range of twenty years for the period of this oc- 
currence, yet from its connexion with events in the life of Paul, a much closer ap- 
proximation can be made. These means will fix it in the year 48 or 49. Cave (Hist. 
Lit. p. 4) says A. D. 48; Pearson (Annal. Paulin.) says A. D. 50; Baillet (Vies des 
Saints) gives it A. D. 51. (A fuller discussion of the minuter proofs of this date will 
be needed in the corresponding passage of Paul's life.) Baronius, however, taking 
for granted the notion of Peter's having visited Antioch before the apostolic consulta- 
tion at Jerusalem, boldly dates it in A. D. 39, (corrected by Pagi to A. D. 37.) Nata- 
lis Alexander gives A. D. 38, following in the same error. 

Besides the great names quoted above in support of the arrangement of facts and 
dates here adopted, the valuable authority of Louis Cappel and Witsius may be men- 
tioned. To these I may safely add, in the general way, the great mass of modern 
eommentators and critics who have alluded to this point. Indeed the argument above 
drawn from the order of narration in Acts, is enough, — even without Paul's direct 
statement, (in Galatians ii. 11, 12,) that this visit to Antioch actually did occur after 
the consultation at Jerusalem, (Galat. ii. 4—10,) — to set the point beyond all contest. 

HIS RETURN EASTWARD. 

Peter's stay in Syria was undoubtedly short. The object of his 
visit to Antioch was probably temporary ; and after satisfying him- 
self of the condition of the church there, whose truly catholic 
principles of communion had been adopted in consequence of his 
own earnest argument in their behalf, he would see comparatively 
little occasion for prolonging his efforts in a field for which other 



peter's apostleship. 257 

laborers especially fitted, and naturally endowed with faculties for 
instructing and converting Greeks, above his highest gifts, had 
been peculiarly consecrated by the original apostles, and by the 
Holy Spirit. He must therefore have soon returned to Jerusalem., 
But in that city, the occasions and the motives of apostolic labor 
were each moment becoming fewer. The fortunes of the Jewish 
nation were now on the decline ; the better days of its last age 
were over. The moderate and gentle rule of Petronius and the 
best of the Herodian princes had been displaced by the harsh and 
merciless visitations of the worst of imperial minions, whose ava- 
ricious exactions and wanton abuses were each day goading the 
sullen rage of the people to the point of desperation. The moral 
condition of a nation subjected to the operation of these malignant 
agencies, could not be such as to encourage the attempt to advance 
among them the mild principles of universal peace and charity. 
Under these circumstances, the apostles, doubly forewarned of 
coming evils, by the signs of the times, and by the prophecy of 
their Lord, must have been so far influenced by the increasing and 
threatening commotions that were gathering around them in Pa- 
lestine, as to turn their eyes to new fields of labor. During the 
administrations of Fadus, Alexander, Cumanus, Felix, Festus, 
Albinus, and Floras, the just causes of national indignation went 
on steadily multiplying, each new governor adding some new oc- 
casion of excitement, till at last it became manifest that the bounds 
of human endurance must soon be passed, and that the wrath of 
a nation thus roused would burst forth with a fury and a madness 
that would insure their own ruin and the utter desolation of their 
land, by a conflict with a power whose energies, in that region, 
were then scarcely short of earthly omnipotence. Sedition fol- 
lowed sedition, through a period of many years, before the actual 
opening of the last fatal struggle, serving as a premonition so 
marked, that the few who remained free from the national fanati- 
cism could not have avoided the conviction of the certainty of 
coming national ruin. 

Where then should the peaceful few find rest from the horrors 
and tumults, whose very beginnings they now felt ? Where should 
the apostles of the faith of Christ find hearers, whose language, 
sympathies, and religion, would present the most natural motives 
and facilities for the inculcation of their peaceful doctrines ? The 
whole of the farther east was already thronged with a Jewish 
population, — peaceful emigrants and refugees from the various 



258 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

local disturbances that had so long agitated their father-land ; and 
thither the missionary enterprise of the original Galilean apos- 
tles must have been most readily directed, — debarred as they were 
from Hellenic and Roman fields, by natural and national disabili- 
ties, as well as by the pre-occupation of that department by the 
apostles who were peculiarly devoted to the gospel of the uncircum- 
cision. But, as Paul testifies to the Galatians, " to Peter was com- 
mitted the gospel of the circumcision." The subjects of his 
ministry were therefore to be sought and found in that part of the 
world to which Hellenic colonization and Roman conquest had not 
yet been extended, so far as to influence them to the adoption 
of Grecian language, or of Latin civil institutions ; but, still in the 
enjoyment of Oriental customs, language, and independence, they 
presented the fairest subjects for a revelation more especially ad- 
dressed, in its original form, to those of Hebrew race. 

HIS RESIDENCE IN BABYLON. 

The eastern bounds of the Roman empire were seldom well 
defined, varying with the results of doubtful warfare waged with 
the dwellers of the wilds and deserts which spread from the west- 
ern provinces of Palestine to the verge of ancient Chaldea. " The 
great river Euphrates," which, in the northern part of its course, 
makes a vast western circuit of many hundred miles, coming 
within the long-established boundaries of the Roman empire, far- 
ther south bends eastward, retreating within regions that had owned 
only an oriental sway. The lands thus cut off from the incur- 
sions of Roman conquest were remarkable as the early seat of 
Oriental empire, which springing up around the southern Eu- 
phrates, where it approaches the Tigris, long made these the centre 
of a sway which ruled from the Mediterranean to the Indus. 
Passing from Assyrian to Chaldean, from Chaldean to Mede and 
Persian, and from Persian to Macedonian, thenceforth the regions 
of the farther east, with great Babylon as a centre of dominion, 
remained subject only to a native empire. The feeble and failing 
sway of the Seleucid was soon swept from these regions by the 
rise and spread of the Parthian power, which originating in north- 
ern Persia, soon obtained over all the original Median empire a 
dominion which western conquerors for centuries vainly endeavored 
to uproot. Babylon, under the Parthians, ceased indeed to be the 
capital of the east; but though fallen from so much of its ancient 
splendor and power, still continued a city of great wealth and 



259 

population. Its inhabitants were of the heterogeneous character, 
that naturally resulted from the various conquests to which it had 
been subjected, — Orientals and Grecians making two great divi- 
sions of the population, with feelings and interests totally differ- 
ent. Among these the Jews held a place quite distinct, holding 
themselves equally separate from eastern and from western Gen- 
tiles, being there and then, as every where in all ages, a peculiar 
people, forming, wherever they went, a nation within a nation. 
Their numbers in the city of Babylon and the province around 
had, from various causes, been increased to such a degree, that 
they constituted a very large portion of the population ; and here 
they dwelt under the Parthian rule, respected and thriving ; and 
though not enjoying the perfect civil security and advanced refine- 
ment of the best provinces of the Roman empire, still they were 
in a peaceful and prosperous condition, far preferable to the agi- 
tated and dangerous state of Palestine at this time. 

For the best illustration of the condition, character, and power oi the Jewish popu- 
lation of Babylon in the apostolic age, I would refer the curious reader to the roman- 
tic story of Asinaeus and Anilaeus, given by Josephus. (Jewish Antiquities, XVIII. 
ix. 1—9.) 

These circumstances pointed it out as a desirable residence for 
the chief apostle, now seeking in the decline of the Jewish state, and 
of his own early vigor, for a peaceful home and a quiet field of labor 
among those of his Hebrew brethren, who were not so carried away 
with national fanaticism as to forbid the hope of their conversion to 
the faith of Jesus. The satisfactory testimony which enables the 
apostolic historian to open this new scene of apostolic enterprise to 
view, is found in a passage in the writings of Peter, of incontro- 
vertible authenticity. His first epistle contains at its close, a general 
salutation from the church in Babylon to the Christians of Asia 
Minor, to whom it was addressed. Prom this, the unquestioned in- 
ference is that Peter was in Babylon when he wrote. The only 
point mooted is whether the place meant by this name was Babylon 
on the Euphrates, or some other city commonly designated by that 
name. The most irrational conjecture on the subject, and yet the one 
which has found most supporters, is that this name is there used 
in a spiritual or a metaphorical sense for Rome, whose conquests, 
wide dominion, idolatries, and tyranny over the worshipers of the 
true God, were considered as assimilating it to the ancient capital 
of the eastern world. But, in reference to such an unparalleled 
instance of useless allegory, in a sober message from one church 

to a number of others, serving as a convenient date for a letter, it 
35 



260 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

should be remembered, that at that time there were at least two 
distinct, important places, bearing the name of Babylon, — so well 
known throughout the east, that the simple mention of the name 
would at once suggest to a common reader one of these as the 
place seriously meant. The only city, of course, to which this 
passage can refer, is that which stood on the site of the ancient 
Chaldean Babylon, — as has already been mentioned, a place of 
great resort to the Jews, and finally becoming to them, after the 
destruction of Jerusalem, a great city of refuge, and one of the 
three great capitals of the Hebrew faith, sharing only with Saphet 
and Tiberias the honors of the literary and religious pre-eminence. 
Even before that, however, as early as the time of Peter, it was a 
city of great importance and interest in a religious point of view, 
offering a most ample and desirable field for the labors of the chief 
apostle, now advancing in years, and whose whole genius, feelings, 
religious education, and national peculiarities, qualified him as 
eminently for this Oriental scene of labor, as those of Paul fitted 
him for the triumphant advancement of the Christian faith among 
the polished and energetic races of the mighty west. With Peter 
went also others of the apostolic band. He himself mentions 
Mark, in his epistle, as with him at that time ; for although a Hel- 
lenist by birth, education, and connexions, Mark seems to have 
been on such terms of personal intimacy with Peter, as to deem a 
personal attendence on him, in his later years, a service of import- 
ance to the cause of Christ. The other apostles are not noticed at 
all in the epistle, and this silence is a good reason for believing 
that they were then beyond the immediate knowledge of Peter, 
scattered through various eastern regions, in their missionary work. 
Thus the most respectable remains of ancient tradition uniformly 
and consistently testify ; and though the departure of some of them 
from Jerusalem was probably later than Peter's journey eastward, 
still, it is as well established as any fact in apostolic history unre- 
recorded in scripture can be, that the surviving Galilean apostles, 
with but two or three exceptions, left Judea before the destruction 
of Jerusalem, and journeyed eastward in the route of most Jewish 
refugees, and made the provinces of the Parthian empire, and the 
regions east of them, the scenes of new apostolic enterprise ; and if 
tradition can prove any thing, it will justify the positive assertion, 
that the great majority of the twelve passed the later years of their 
life and were finally entombed east of the Euphrates. The proofs 
will be given in their individual lives ; but it is enough, for the 



261 

present, to observe, that the testimony to this general fact is remark- 
ably distinct, consistent, and conclusive, forming a very remarkable 
exception to the character which such evidences generally sustain, 
since here, without any assignable motive for perverting truth, the 
ancient Christian writers very uniformly represent the original 
apostles as traveling eastward, beyond those regions in which 
these writers dwelt, and for which they must have felt disposed, if 
possible, to claim the honors of original apostolic labor and conse- 
cration. 

Here, then, it seems reasonable and pleasant to imagine that in 
this glorious " clime of the east," — away from the bloody strife 
between tyranny and faction, that distracted and desolated the 
once blessed land of Israel's heritage, during the brief delay of its 
awful doom, — among the scenes of that ancient captivity, in which 
the mourning sons of Zion had drawn high consolation and last- 
ing support from the same word of prophecy, which the march of 
time in its solemn fulfilments had since made the faithful history 
of God's believing people, — here the chief apostle calmly passed 
the slow decline of his lengthened years. High associations of 
historical and religious interest gave all around him a holy char- 
acter. He sat amid the ruins of empires, the scattered wrecks of 
ages, — still in their dreary desolation attesting the surety of the 
word of God. From the lonely waste, mounded with the dust of 
twenty-three centuries, came the solemn witness of the truth of 
the Hebrew seers, who sung, over the highest glories of that plain 
in its brightest days, the long-foredoomed ruin that at last over- 
swept it with such blighting desolation. Here, mighty visions of 
the destiny of worlds, the rise and fall of empire, rose on the view 
of Daniel and Ezekiel, whose prophetic scope, on this vast stage 
of dominion, expanded far beyond the narrow limits that bounded 
all the future in the eyes of the sublimest of those prophets whose 
whole ideas of what was great were taken from the little world of 
Palestine. Like them, too, the apostolic chief lifted his aged eyes 
above the paltry commotions and troubles of his own land and 
times, and glanced far over all, to the scenes of distant ages, — to 
the broad view of the spiritual consummation of events, — to the 
final triumphs of a true and pure faith, — to the achievment of the 
world's destiny. 

Babylon. — The great Sir John David Michaelis enters with the most satisfactory 
fullness into the discussion of this locality ; — with more fullness, indeed, than my 
crowded limits will allow me to do justice to ; so that I mast refer my reader to his 
Introduction to the N. T., (chap, xxvii. § 4, 5,) where ample statements may be found 



262 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

by those who wish to satisfy themselves of the justice of my conclusion about the 
place from which this epistle was written. He very ably exposes the extraordinary 
absurdity of the opinion that this date was given in a mystical sense, at a time when 
the ancient Babylon, on the Euphrates, was still in existence, as well as a city on the 
Tigris, Seleucia, to which the name of modern Babylon was given. And he might 
have added, that there was still another of this name in Egypt, not far from the great 
Memphis, which has. by Pearson and others, been earnestly defended as the Babylon 
from which Peter wrote. Michaelis observes, that through some mistake it has been 
supposed, that the ancient Babylon, in the time of Peter, was no longer in being ; and 
it is true that in comparison with its original splendor, it might be called, even in the 
first century, a desolated city : yet it was not wholly a heap of ruins, nor destitute of 
inhabitants. This appears from the account which Strabo, who lived in the time of 
Tiberius, has given of it. This great geographer compares Babylon to Seleucia, 
saying — " At present, Babylon is not so great as Seleucia," which was then the capi- 
tal of the Parthian empire, and, according to Pliny, contained six hundred thousand 
inhabitants. The acute Michaelis humorously remarks, that " to conclude that Ba- 
bylon, whence Peter dates his epistle, could not have been the ancient Babylon, 
because this city was in a state of decay, and thence to argue that Peter used the 
word mystically, to denote Rome, is about the same as if, on the receipt of a letter 
dated from Ghent or Antwerp, in which mention was made of a Christian community 
there, I concluded that because these cities are no longer what they were in the six- 
teenth century, the writer of the epistle meant a spiritual Ghent or Antwerp, and that 
the epistle was really written from Amsterdam." And in the next section he gives a 
similar illustration of this amusing absurdity, equally apt and happy, drawn in the 
same manner from modem places about him, (for Gottingen was the residence of the 
immortal professor.) " The plain language of epistolary writing does not admit of 
figures of poetry ; and though it would be very allowable in a poem, written in honor 
of Gottingen, to style it another Athens, yet if a professor of this university should, 
in a letter written from Gottingen, date it Athens, it would be a greater piece of 
pedantry than was ever yet laid to the charge of the learned. In like manner, though 
a figurative use of the word Babylon is not unsuitable to the animated and poetical 
language of the Apocalypse, yet in a plain and unadorned epistle, Peter would hardly 
have called the place whence he wrote, by any other appellation than that which lite- 
rally and properly belonged to it." (Michaelis. Int. N. T., Marsh's translation, chap- 
ter xxvii. § 4, 5.) 

The most zealous defender of this mere popish notion of a mystical Babylon, is, 
alas ! a Protestant. The best argument ever made out in its defense, is that by Lard- 
ner, who, in his account of Peter's epistles, (Hist, of Apost. and Evang. chap. xix. 
§ 3,) does his utmost to maintain the mystical sense, and may be well referred to as 
giving the best possible defense of this view. But the course of Lardner's great 
work having led him, on all occasions, to make the most of the testimonies of the 
Fathers, in connexion with the establishment of the credibility of the gospel history, 
he seems to have been unable to shake off this reverence of every thing which came 
on authority as old as Augustin; and his critical judgment on the traditionary his- 
tory of Christianity is therefore worth very little. Any one who wishes to see all his 
truly elaborate and learned arguments fairly met, may find this done by a mind of far 
greater originality, critical acuteness, and'Biblical knowledge, (if not equal in ac- 
quaintance with the Fathers,) and by a far sounder judgment, in Michaelis, as above 
quoted, who has put an end to all dispute on these points, by his presentation of the 
truth. So well settled is this ground now, that we find in the theology of Romish 
writers most satisfactory refutations of an error, so convenient for the support of 
Romish supremacy. The learned Hug (pronounced very nearly like " Hookh ;" u 
sounded as in bwll, and g strongly aspirated) may here be referred to for the latest 
defense of the common-sense view. (Introd. Vol. II. § 165.) In answer to the notion 
of an Egyptian Babylon, he gives us help not to be found in Michaelis, who makes 
no mention of this view. Lardner also quotes from Strabo what sufficiently shows, 
that this Babylon was no town of importance, but a mere military station for one of 
the three Roman legions which guarded Egypt. 

The only other place that could in any way be proposed as the Babylon of Peter, 
is Seleucia on the Tigris; but Michaelis has abundantly shown, that though in poeti- 
cal usage in that age, and in common usage afterwards, this city was called Babylon, 
yet in Peter's time, grave prose statements would imply the ancient city, and not this. 
He also quotes a highly illustrative passage from Josephus, in defense" of his views; 
and which is of so much the more importance, because Josephus was a historian who 



263 

lived v in the same age with Peter, and the passage itself relates to an event which 
took place thirty -six years before the Christian era ; namely, " the delivery of Hyr- 
canus, the Jewish high priest, from imprisonment, with permission to reside in Ba- 
bylon, where there was a considerable number of Jews." (Joseph. Antiq. XV. ii. 2.) 
Josephus adds, that " both the Jews in Babylon and all who dwelt in that country, 
respected Hyrcanus as high priest and king." That this was the ancient Babylon, and 
not Seleucia, appears from the fact, that wherever else he mentions the latter city, he 
calls it Seleucia. 

Wetstein's supposition that Peter meant the province of Babylon, being suggested 
only by the belief that the ancient Babylon did not then exist, is, of course, rendered 
entirely unnecessary by the proof of its existence. 

Besides the great names mentioned above, as authorities for the view which I have 
taken, I may refer also to Drusius, Erasmus, Gerhardus, Gomarus, Beza, Vorstius, 
Mede, Lightfoot, Basnage, Beausobre, and even Cave, in spite of his love of Romish 
fables. Dr. Murdock also favors this view in his MS. Lectures. 

To give a complete account of all the views of the passage referring to Babylon, 
(1 Pet. v. 13,) I should also mention that of Pott, (on the cath. epist.,) mentioned by 
Hug. This is, that by the phrase in the Greek, h lv Ba,3v\£vi cweris/cri), is meant " the 
woman chosen with him in Babylon," that is, Peter's wife ; as if he wished to say — 
" my wife, who is in Babylon, salutes you ;" and Pott concludes that the apostle him- 
self was somewhere else at the time. For the answer to this notion, I refer the cri- 
tical to Hug. This same notion had been before advanced by Mill, Wall, and Heu- 
mann. and refuted by Lardner. (Supp. xix. 5.) 

HIS FIRST EPISTLE. 

Inspired by such associations and remembrances, and by the spirit 
of simple truth and sincerity, Peter wrote his first epistle, which he 
directed to his Jewish brethren in several sections of Asia Minor, 
who had probably been brought under his ministry only in Jerusalem, 
on their visits there in attendence on the great annual feasts, to enjoy 
which, in all years, as in that of the Pentecost on which the Spirit 
was outpoured, they came up to the Holy city ; for there is no proof 
whatever, that Peter ever visited those countries to which he sent 
this letter. The character of the evidence offered, has been already 
mentioned. These believers in Christ had, during their annual visits 
to Jerusalem for many years, been in the habit of seeing there this 
venerable apostolic chief, and of hearing from his lips the gospel 
truth. But the changes of events having made it necessary for him 
to depart from Jerusalem to the peaceful lands of the east, the annual 
visitors of the Holy city from the west no longer enjoyed the pre- 
sence and the spoken words of this their greatest teacher. To con- 
sole them for this loss, and to supply that spiritual instruction which 
seemed most needful to them in their immediate circumstances, he 
now wrote to them this epistle ; the main purport of which seems 
to be, to inspire them with courage and consolation, under some 
weight of general suffering, then endured by them or impending 
over them. Indeed, the whole scope of the epistle bears most mani- 
festly on this one particular point, — the preparation of its readers, the 
Christian communities of Asia Minor, for heavy sufferings. It is 
not, to be sure, without many moral instructions, valuable in a mere 
general bearing, but all therein given have a peculiar force in refer- 
ence to the solemn preparation for the endurance of calamities, soon 
to fall on them. The earnest exhortations which it contains, urging 



264 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

them to maintain a pure conscience, to refute the calumnies of time 
by innocence, — to show respect for the magistracy, — to unite in so 
much the greater love and fidelity, — with many others, — are all evi- 
dently intended to provide them with the virtues which would sus- 
tain them under the fearful doom then threatening them. In the pur- 
suance of the same great design, the apostle calls their attention with 
peculiar earnestness to the bright example of Jesus Christ, whose 
behavior in suffering was now held up to them as a model and guide 
in their afflictions. With this noble pattern in view, the apostle calls 
on them to go on in their blameless way, in spite of all that affliction 
might throw in the path of duty. 

No proof that he ever visited them. — The learned Hug, truly catholic (but not pa- 
pistical) in his views of these points, though connected with the Roman church, has 
honestly taken his stand against the foolish invention, on which so much time has 
been spent above. He says — " Peter had not seen the Asiatic provinces ; they were 
situated in the circuit of Paul's department, who had traveled through them, in- 
structed them, and even at a distance, and in prison, did not lose sight of them. (As 
witness his epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians, all which are com- 
prehended within the circle to which Peter wrote.) He was acquainted with their 
mode of life, foibles, virtues, and imperfections,— their whole condition, and the 
manner in which they ought to be treated." The learned writer, however, does not 
seem to have fully appreciated Peter's numerous and continual opportunities for per- 
sonal communications with these converts at Jerusalem. In the brief allusion made 
in Acts ii. 9, 10, to the foreign Jews visiting Jerusalem at the Pentecost, three of the 
very countries to which Peter writes, " Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia," are com- 
memorated with other neighboring regions, " Phrygia and Pamphylia." Hug goes 
on, however, to trace several striking and interesting coincidences between this epis- 
tle and those of Paul to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, and to Timothy, all which 
were directed to this region. (Hug's Introduction to N. T., volume II. § 160, Wait's 
translation.) He observes that " Peter is so far from denying his acquaintance with 
the epistles of Paul, that he even in express terms refers his readers to these compo- 
sitions of his ' beloved brother,' (2 Peter iii. 15,) and recommends them to them." Hug, 
also, in the succeeding section, (§ 161,) points out some still more remarkable coin- 
cidences between this and the epistle of James, which, in several passages, are ex- 
actly uniform. As 1 Pet. i. 6, 7, and James i. 2, 3, 4 : — 1 Pet. i, 24. and James i. 10 : — 
1 Pet. v. 5. 6, and James iv. 6 — 10. 

Asia. — It must be understood that there are three totally distinct applications of this 
name ; and without a remembrance of the fact, the whole subject will be in an inextri- 
cable confusion. In modern geography, as is well known, it is applied to all that 
part of the eastern continent which is bounded west by Europe and Africa, and south 
by the Indian ocean. It is also applied sometimes under the limitation of " Minor," 
or " Lesser," to that part of Great Asia, which lies between the Mediterranean and 
the Black sea. But in this passage it is not used in either of these extended senses. 
It is confined to that very narrow section of the eastern coast of the Aegean sea, 
which stretches from the Caicus to the Meander, including but a few miles of terri- 
tory inland, in which were the seven cities to which John wrote in the Apocalypse. 
The same tract also bore the name of Maeonia. Asia Minor, in the modern sense 
of the term, is also frequently alluded to in Acts, but no where else in the N. T., 
unless we adopt Griesbach's reading of Rom. xvi. 5, (Asia instead of Achaia.) 

In the outset of his address, he greets them as " strangers" in all 
the various lands throughout which they were " scattered," — bearing 
every where the stamp of a peculiar people, foreign in manners, prin- 
ciples, and in conduct, to the indigenous races of the regions in which 
they had made their home, yet sharing, at the same time, the sorrows 
and the glories of the doomed nation from which they drew their 
origin, — a chosen, an " elect" order of people, prepared in the coun- 



265 

sels of God for a high and holy destiny, by the consecrating influ- 
ence of a spirit of truth. Pointing them to that hope of an un- 
changing, undefiled, unfading heritage in the heavens, above the 
temporary sorrows of the earth, he teaches them to find in that, the 
consolation needful in their various trials. These trials, in various 
parts of his work, he speaks of as inevitable and dreadful, — yet ap- 
pointed by the decrees of God himself as a fiery test, — beginning its 
judgments, indeed, in his own household, but ending in a vastly more 
awful doom on those who had not the support and safety of obedi- 
ence to his warning word of truth. All these things are said by way 
of premonition, to put them on their guard against the onset of ap- 
proaching evil, lest they should think it strange that a dispensation 
so cruel should visit them ; when, in reality, it was an occasion for 
joy, that they should thus be made, in suffering, partakers of the 
glory of Christ, won in like manner. He moreover warns them to 
keep a constant watch over their conduct, to be prudent and careful, 
because " the accusing prosecutor" was constantly prowling around 
them, seeking to attack some one of them with his devouring accu- 
sations. Him they were to meet, with a solid adherence to the faith, 
knowing as they did, that the responsibilities of their religious pro- 
fession were not confined within the narrow circle of their own sec- 
tional limits, but were shared with their brethren in the faith 
throughout almost the whole world. 

From all these particulars the conclusion is inevitable, that there 
was in the condition of the Christians to whom he wrote, a most re- 
markable crisis just occurring, — one, too, of no limited or local char- 
acter ; and that throughout Asia Minor and the whole empire, a try- 
ing time of universal trouble was immediately beginning with all 
who owned the faith of Jesus. The widely extended character ot 
the evil necessarily implies its emanation from the supreme power of 
the empire, which, bounded by no provincial limits, would sweep 
through the world in desolating fury on the righteous sufferers ; nor 
is there any event recorded in the history of those ages, which could 
thus have affected the Christian communities, except the first 
Christian persecution, in which Nero, with wanton malice, 
set the example of cruel, unfounded accusation, that soon spread 
throughout his whole empire, bringing suffering and death to thou- 
sands of faithful believers. 

Accusing prosecutor. — The view "which Hug takes of the scope of the epistle, throws 
new light on the true meaning of this passage, and abundantly justifies this new 
translation, though none of the great N. T. lexicographers support it. The primary, 
simple senses of the words also, help to justify the usage, as well as their similar force 
in other passages. A reference to any lexicon will show that elsewhere, these words 
bear a meaning accordant with this version. The first noun never occurs in the N. 
T. except in a legal sense. The Greek is 'O ovtiSikos fytw*> Sta0o\os, (1 Pet. v. 8,) in 
which the last word (diabolos) need not be construed as a substantive expression, but 
may be made an adjective, belonging to the second word {antidikos.) The last word, 
under these circumstances, need not necessarily mean " the devil," in any sense ; but 
referring directly to the simple sense of its primitive, mast be made to mean " calum- 
niating," " slanderous," " accusing,"— and in connexion with the technical, legal term 



266 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

avTiSiKos, (whose primary, etymological sense is uniformly a legal one, " the plain- 
tiff or prosecutor in a suit at law,") can mean only " the calumniating (or accusing) 
prosecutor." The common writers on the epistle, being utterly ignorant of its gene- 
ral scope, have failed to apprehend the true force of this expression ; but the clear, 
critical judgment of Rosenmiiller (though he also was without the advantage of a 
knowledge of its history) led him at once to see the greater justice of the view here 
given ; and he accordingly adopts it, yet not with the definite, technical application 
of terms justly belonging to the passage. He refers vaguely to others who have 
taken this view, but does not give names. 

Another series of passages in this epistle refers to the remarkable 
fact, that the Christians were at that time suffering under an accusa- 
tion that they were " evil-doers," malefactors, criminals, liable to the 
vengeance of the law; and that this accusation was so general, that 
the name, Christian, was already a term denoting a criminal directly 
liable to this legal vengeance. This certainly was a state of things 
hitherto totally unparalleled in the history of the followers of Christ. 
In all the accounts previously given of the nature of the attacks made 
on them by their enemies, it is made to appear that no accusation 
whatever was sustained or even brought against them, in reference to 
moral or legal offences ; but they were always presented in the light 
of mere religious dissenters and sectaries. At Corinth, the inde- 
pendent and equitable Gallio dismissed them from the judgment- 
seat, with the upright decision, that they were chargeable with no 
crime whatever. Felix and Festus, with king Agrippa II., also, 
alike esteemed the whole procedure against Paul as a mere theologi- 
cal or religious affair, relating to doctrines, and not to moral actions. 
At Ephesus, even one of the high officers of the city did not hesi- 
tate to declare, in the face of a mob raging against Paul and his 
companions, that they were innocent of all crime. And even as late 
as the seventh year of Nero, the name of Christian had so little of an 
odious or criminal character, that Agrippa II. did not disdain, before a 
great and solemn assemblage of Romans and Jews, to declare himself 
almost persuaded to adopt both the name and character. And the whole 
course of their history abundantly shows, that so far from the idea 
of attacking the Christian brotherhood in a mass, as guilty of legal 
offenses, and making their very name nearly synonymous with crimi- 
nal, no trace whatever of such an attack appears, until three years 
after the last mentioned date, when Nero charged the Christians, as 
a sect, with his own atrocious crime, the dreadful devastation by fire 
of his own capital ; and on this ground, every where instituted a cruel 
persecution against them. In connexion with this procedure, the 
Christians are first mentioned in Roman history, as a new and pecu- 
liar class of people, called Christiani, from their founder, Christus ; 
and in reference to this matter, abusive charges are brought against 
them. 

Evil doers. — These passages are in ii. 12, iii. 16, iv. 15, where the word in Greek 
is KiKorotoi, (kakopoioi,) which means a malefactor, as is shown in John xviii. 30, 
where the whole point of the remark consists in the fact, that the person spoken of 
was considered an actual violator of known law ; so that the word is evidently limited 
throughout, to those who were criminals in the eye of the law. 



Peter's apostleship. 267 

The name Christian denoting a criminal— -This is manifest from iv. 16, where they 
are exhorted to suffer for this alone, and to give no occasion whatever for any other 
criminal accusation. 

A third characteristic of the circumstances of those to whom this 
epistle is addressed, is that they were obliged to be constantly on 
their guard against accusations, which would expose them to capital 
punishment. They were objects of scorn and obloquy, and were to 
expect to be dragged to trial as thieves, murderers, and as wretches 
conspiring secretly against the public peace and safety ; and to all 
this they were liable in their character as Christians. The apostle, 
therefore, in deep solicitude for the dreadful condition and liabilities 
of his friends, warns those who, in spite of innocence, are thus made 
to suffer, to consider all their afflictions as in accordance with the 
wise will of God, and, in an upright course of conduct, to commit 
the keeping of their souls to him, as a faithful guardian, who would 
not allow the permanent injury of the souls which he had created. 
Now, not even a conjecture can be made, much less, any historical 
proof be brought, that beyond Palestine any person had ever yet been 
made to suffer death on the score of religion ; or of any stigma attach- 
ing to that sect, before the time when Nero involved them in the 
cruel charge just mentioned. The date of the first instances of such 
persecutions was the eleventh year of the reign of Nero, under the 
consulships of Caius Lecanius Bassus, and Marcus Licinius Crassus, 
according to the Roman annals. The commencement of the burning 
of Rome, which was the occasion of this first attack on the Christians, 
was in the last part of the month of July ; but the persecution did 
not begin immediately. After various contrivances to avert the in- 
dignation of the people from their imperial destroyer, the Christians 
were seized as a proper expiatory sacrifice, the choice being favored 
by the general dislike with which they were regarded. This attack 
being deferred for some time after the burning, could not have oc- 
curred till late in that year. The epistle cannot have been written 
before its occurrence, nor indeed until some time afterwards ; because 
a few months must be allowed for the account of it to spread to the 
provinces of Asia, and it must have been still later when the news 
of the difficulty could reach the apostle, so as to enable him to ap- 
preciate the danger of those Christians who were under the dominion 
of the Romans. It is evident, then, that the epistle was not written 
in the same year in which the burning occurred ; but in the subse- 
quent one, the twelfth of Nero's reign, and the sixty-fifth of the 
Christian era. By that time the condition and prospects of the 
Christians throughout the empire, were such as to excite the deepest 
solicitude in the great apostle, who, though himself residing in the 
great Parthian empire, removed from all danger of injury from the 
Roman emperor, was by no means disposed to forget the high claims 
the sufferers had on him for counsel and consolation. This dreadful 
event was the most important which had ever yet befallen the Chris- 

36 



268 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tians, and there would certainly be just occasion for surprise, if it had 
called forth no consolatory testimony from the founders of the faith, 
and if no trace of it could be found in the apostolic records. 

Committing the keeping of their souls to God. — This view of the design of the epistle 
gives new force to this passage, (iv. 19.) 

First mentioned in Roman history. — This is by Tacitus, (Annal. xv. 44.) After 
speaking in previous passages of the various means used by Nero to repair the mis- 
chief done by that awful conflagration of the city, and to turn off from himself the 
suspicion of having caused it, he says — " Sed non ope humana, non largitionibus 
Principis, aut Deuin placamentis, decedebat infamia, quin jussum incendium crede- 
retur. Ergo abolendo rumori subdidit reos, et quaesitissimis poenis affecit, quos 
per flagitia invisos, vulgos Christianos appellabat," &c. — " But not by human effort, 
not by the lavish bounty of a monarch, or by the propitiations of the gods, could the 
impression be removed, that he had caused the conflagration. To get rid of this 
general impression, therefore, he brought under this accusation, and visited with the 
most exquisite punishments, a set of persons, hateful for their crimes, commonly 
called Christians. The name was derived from Christus, who, in the reign of Ti- 
berius, was seized and punished by Pontius Pilate, the procurator. The ruinous 
superstition, though checked for a while, broke out again, not only in Judea, the 
source of the evil, but also in the city, (Rome.) Therefore those who professed it 
were first seized, and then, on their confession, a great number of others were con- 
victed, not so much on the charge of the arson, as on account of the universal hatred 
which existed against them. And their deaths were made amusing exhibitions, as, 
being covered with the skins of wild beasts, they were torn to pieces by dogs, or were 
nailed to crosses, or, being daubed with combustible stuff, were burned by way of 
light, in the darkness, after the close of day. Nero opened his own gardens for the 
show, and mingled with the lowest part of the throng, on the occasion." (The de- 
scription of the cruel manner in which they were burned, may serve as a forcible 
illustration of the meaning of " the fiery trial," to which Peter alludes, iv. 12.) By 
Suetonius, also, they are briefly mentioned. (Nero. cap. 15.) " Arflicti suppliciis 
Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novae et maleftcae." — " The Christians, a 
sort of men of a new and pernicious {evil doing) superstition, were visited with 
punishments." 

That this Neronian persecution was as extensive as is here made to appear, is 
proved by Lardner and Hug. The former, in particular, gives several very interest- 
ing evidences, in his " Heathen Testimonies," especially the remarkable inscription 
referring to this persecution, found in Portugal. (Test, of Anc. Heath, chap, iii.) 
This last, however, being evidence of disputed authenticity and antiquity, certainly 
cannot be considered as very satisfactory on a doubtful point. 

From the uniform tone in which the apostle alludes to the danger 
as threatening only his readers, without the slightest allusion to the 
circumstance of his being involved in the difficulty, is drawn another 
important confirmation of the locality of the epistle. He uniformly 
uses the second person, when referring to trials, but if he himself 
had then been so situated as to share in the calamity for which he 
strove to prepare them, he would have been very apt to have ex- 
pressed his own feelings in view of the common evil. Paul, in those 
epistles which were written under circumstances of personal distress, 
is very full of warm expressions of the state of mind in which he 
met his trials ; nor was there in Peter any lack of the fervid energy 
that would burst forth in similarly eloquent sympathy, on the like 
occasions. But from Babylon, beyond the bounds of Roman sway, 
he looked on their sufferings only with that pure sympathy which 
his regard for his brethren would excite ; and it is not to be wonder- 
ed, then, that he uses the second person merely, in speaking of their 



269 

distresses. The bearer of this epistle to the distressed Christians of 
Asia Minor, is named Silvanus, generally supposed to be the same 
with Silvanus or Silas, mentioned in Paul's epistle, and in the Acts, 
as the companion of Paul in his journeys through some of those 
provinces to which Peter now wrote. There is great probability in 
this conjecture, nor is there any thing that contradicts it in the slightest 
degree ; and it may therefore be considered as true. Some other 
great object may at this time have required his presence among them, 
or he may have been then passing on his journey to rejoin Paul, thus 
executing this commission incidentally. 

This view of the scope and contents of this epistle is taken from Hug, who seems 
to have originated it. At least I can find nothing of it in any other author whom I 
have consulted. Michaelis, for instance, though evidently apprehending the general 
tendency of the epistle, and its design to prepare its readers for the coming of some 
dreadful calamity, was not led thereby to the just apprehension of the historical cir- 
cumstances therewith connected. (Hug, II. §§ 162 — 165. Wait's translation. — Mi- 
chaelis, Vol. IV. chap, xxvii. §§ 1—7.) 

The time when this epistle was written is very variously fixed by the different 
writers to whom I have above referred. Lardner, dating it at Rome, concludes that 
the time was between A. D. 63 and 65, because he thinks that Peter could not have 
arrived at Rome earlier. This inference depends entirely on what he does not 
prove, — the assertion that by Babylon, in the date, is meant Rome. The proofs of its 
being another place, which I have given above, will therefore require that it should 
have been written before that time, if Peter did then go to Rome. And Michaelis 
seems to ground upon this notion his belief, that it " was written either not long be- 
fore, or not long after, the year 60." But the nobly impartial Hug comes to our aid 
again, with the sentence, which, though bearing against a fiction most desirable for 
his church, he unhesitatingly passes on its date. From his admirable detail of the 
contents and design of the epistle, he makes it evident that it was written (from Baby- 
lon) some years after the time when Peter is commonly said to have gone to Rome, 
never to return. This is the opinion which I have necessarily adopted, after taking 
his view of the design of the epistle ; and I have therefore dated it in A. D. 65, the 
twelfth of Nero's reign. 

THE SECOND EPISTLE. 

After writing the former epistle to the Christians of Asia Minor, 
Peter probably continued to reside in Babylon, since no occurrence 
is mentioned which could draw him away, in his old age, from the 
retired but important field of labor to which he had previously con- 
fined himself. Still exercising a paternal watchfulness, however, 
over his distant disciples, his solicitude before long again excited him 
to address them in reference to their spiritual difficulties and neces- 
sities. The apprehensions expressed in the former epistle, respecting 
their maintenance of a pure faith in their complicated trials, had in 
the mean time proved well-grounded. During the distracting ca- 
lamities of Nero's persecution, false teachers had arisen, who had, by 
degrees, brought in pernicious heresies among them, affecting the 
very foundations of the faith, and ending in the most ruinous conse- 
quences to the belief and practice of some. This second epistle he 
wrote, therefore, to stir up those who were still pure in heart, to the 
remembrance of the true doctrines of Christianity, as taught by the 
apostles ; and to warn them against the heretical notions that had 
so fatally spread among them. Of the errors complained of, the most 



270 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

important seems to have been the denial of the judgment, which had 
been prophesied so long. Solemnly re-assuring them of the certainty 
of that awful series of events, he exhorted them to the steady main- 
tenance of such a holy conduct and godly life, as would fit them to 
meet the great change which he so sublimely pictured, whenever 
and however it should occur ; and closed with a most solemn charge 
to beware lest they also should be led away by the error of the 
wicked, so as to fall from their former steadfast adherence to the 
truth. In the former part of the epistle he alluded affectingly to the 
.nearness of his own end, as an especial reason for his urgency with 
those from whom he was so soon to be parted. " I think it meet as 
long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up to the remembrance 
of these things, knowing as I do that the putting off of my tabernacle 
is very near, according to what our Lord Jesus Christ made known 
to me." This is an allusion to the prophecy of his Master at the 
meeting on the lake, after the resurrection, described in the last 
chapter of John's gospel. " Therefore," writes the aged apostle, " I 
will be urgent that you, after my departure, may always hold these 
things in your memory." All which seems to imply an anticipated 
death, of which he was reminded by the course of natural decay, and 
by the remembrance of the parting prophecy of his Master, and not 
by any thing very imminently dangerous or threatening in his exter- 
nal circumstances, at the time of writing. This was the last im- 
portant work of his adventurous and devoted life ; and his allusions 
to the solemn scenes of future judgment were therefore most solemnly 
appropriate. Those to whom he wrote could expect to see his face 
no more, and his whole epistle is in a strain accordant with these 
circumstances, dwelling particularly on the awful realities of a coming 
day of doom. 

The first epistle of Peter has always been received as authentic, 
ever since the apostolic writings were first collected, nor has there 
ever been a single doubt expressed by any theologian,, that it was 
what it pretended to be ; but in regard to the epistle just mentioned 
as his second, and now commonly so received, there has been as 
much earnest discussion, as concerning any other book in the sacred 
canon, excepting, perhaps, the epistle to the Hebrews, and John's 
Revelation. The weight of historical testimony is certainly rather 
against its authenticity, since all the early Fathers who explicitly 
mention it, speak of it as a work of very doubtful character. In the 
first list of the sacred writings that is recorded, this is not put among 
those generally acknowledged as of divine authority, but among 
those whose truth was disputed. Still, quotations from it are found 
in the writings of the Fathers, in the first, second, and third centu- 
ries, by whom it is mentioned approvingly, although not specified as 
inspired or of divine authority. But even as late as the end ot 
the fourth century, there were still many who denied it to be Peter's, 
on account of supposed differences of style observable between this 



Peter's apostleship. 271 

and the former epistle, which was acknowledged to be his. The 
Syrian Christians continued to reject it from their canon for some 
time after ; for in the old Syriac version, which is believed to have 
been executed in the first century, this alone, of all books then writ- 
ten and promulgated, (at any rate, those generally known and circu- 
lated,) that are now considered a part of the New Testament, is not 
contained, though it was regarded by many among them as a good 
book, and is quoted in the writings of one of the Syrian Fathers, 
with respect. After this period, however, these objections were soon 
forgotten, and from the fifth century downwards, it has been univer- ^ 
sally adopted into the authentic canon, and regarded with that 
reverence which its internal evidences of truth and genuineness so 
amply justify. Indeed, it is on its internal evidence, almost entirely, 
that its great defense must be founded, — since the historical testi- 
monies (by common confession of theologians) will not afford that 
satisfaction to the investigator, which is desirable on subjects of this 
nature ; and though ancient usage and its long-established possession 
of a place in the inspired code may be called up in its support, still 
there will be occasion for the aid of internal reasons, to maintain a 
positive decision as to its authenticity. And this sort of evidence, an 
examination by the rigid standards of modern critical theology proves 
abundantly sufficient for the effort to which it is summoned ; for 
though it has been said, that since the ancients themselves were in 
doubt, the moderns cannot expect to arrive at certainty, because it is 
impossible to get more historical information on the subject, in the 
nineteenth century, than ecclesiastical writers had within reach in 
the third and fourth centuries ; still, when the question of the authen- 
ticity of the work is to be decided by an examination of its contents, 
the means of ascertaining the truth are by no means proportioned to 
the antiquity of the criticism. In the early ages of Christianity, the 
science of faithfully investigating truth hardly had an existence ; and 
such has been the progress of improvement in this department of 
knowledge, under the labors of modern theologians, that the writers 
of the nineteenth century may justly be considered as possessed of 
far more extensive and certain means of settling the character of this 
epistle by internal evidence, than were within the knowledge of 
those Christian Fathers who lived fifteen hundred years ago. The 
great objection against the epistle in the fourth century, was an al- 
leged dissimilarity of style between this and the former epistle. Now, 
there can be no doubt whatever that modern Biblical scholars have 
vastly greater means for judging of a rhetorical question of this kind, 
than the Christian Fathers of the fourth century, of whom those who 
were Grecians were really less scientifically acquainted with their 
own language, and no more qualified for a comparison of this kind, 
than those who live in an age when the principles of criticism are 
so much better understood. With all these superior lights, the re- 
sults of the most accurate modern investigations have been decidedly 



272 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

favorable to the authenticity of the second epistle ascribed to Peter, 
and the most rigid comparisons of its style with that of the former, 
have brought out proofs triumphantly satisfactory of its identity of 
origin with that, — proofs so much the more unquestionable, as they 
are borrowed from coincidences which must have been entirely natu- 
ral and incidental, and not the result of any deliberate collusion. 

This account of the second epistle is also taken from Hug and Michaelis, to whom, 
with Lardner, reference may be made for the details of all the arguments for and 
against its authenticity. 

The Syriac version (Peshito) excludes, besides this epistle, the second and third 
epistles of John, the epistle of Jude, and the Revelation of John. The best modern 
critical authority (John David Michaelis, Bp. Laurence, &c.) conspires with ancient 
tradition in fixing the date of this most ancient translation of the New Testament at 
the close of the first century, which was probably before the excluded writings were 
generally circulated or known in the east as a part of the sacred canon. 

As to the place and time of writing this epistle, it seems quite 
probable that it was written where the former one was, since there 
is no account or hint whatever of any change in Peter's external 
circumstances ; and that it was written some years after it, is un- 
questionable, since its whole tenor requires such a period to have 
intervened, as would allow the first to reach them and be read by 
them, and also for the apostle to learn in the course of time the 
effects ultimately produced by it, and to hear of the rise of new diffi- 
culties requiring new apostolical interference and counsel. The first 
seems to have been directed mainly to those who were complete Jews, 
by birth, or by proselytism, as appears from the terms in which he 
repeatedly addresses them in it ; but the sort of errors complained of 
in this epistle seem to have been so exclusively characteristic of Gen- 
tile converts, that it must have been written more particularly with 
reference to difficulties in that part of the religious communities of 
those regions. He condemns and refutes certain heretics who re- 
jected some of the fundamental truths of the Mosaic law, — errors 
which no well-trained Jew could ever be supposed to make, but 
which, in motley assemblages of different races, like the Christian 
churches, might naturally enough arise among those Gentiles, who 
felt impatient at the inferiority in which they seemed implicated by 
their ignorance of the doctrines of the Jewish theology, in which 
their circumcised brethren were so fully versed. It seems to have 
been more especially aimed at the rising sect of the Gnostics, who 
are known to have been heretical on some of the very points here 
alluded to. Its great similarity, in some passages, to the epistle of 
Jude, will make it the subject of allusion again in the life of that 
apostle. 

Doddridge conjectures the second epistle to have been written six years after the 
first, and the supposition is reasonable. Following the vulgar notion, however, he 
fixes its absolute date in the year 67, — a notion refuted by the facts above referred to. 

Besides these authentic writings of Peter, a great number of absurd forgeries, in- 
vented in the third and fourth centuries, were long circulated as his works, though 
they never obtained general credit. These are the Preaching of Peter, the Revela- 



peter's apostleship. 273 

tion of Peter ; the Judgment of Peter, the Acts of Peter, the Doctrine of Peter, and 
other still later trash, — all long since condemned and exploded as they deserve. 

HIS DEATH. 

The solemn words in which the apostle refers in the beginning 
of his last epistle, to the nearness of his own death, — specifying 
clearly that he " knew that he must shortly put off this earthly 
tabernacle, even as the Lord Jesus Christ had showed him," 
and that " he was urgent, in order that they might hold these 
things in remembrance after his decease" — all seem to imply a 
prophetic force, and may therefore with reason be considered as 
fixing the actual time of his death within a few months or years 
of the date of this epistle. From the opinions already pronounced 
as to the probable date of his last writing, it would appear that he 
was now quite advanced in years ; for if his age was as near that 
of Christ as is commonly supposed, he must have been not far 
from seventy years old. Already he must have felt the slow and 
solemn accomplishment of his Lord's warning at the meeting on 
the lake of Gennesar ; — no longer, as " when young, girding him- 
self and walking whither he would," with the animated movement 
which his constitutional vivacity and energy must have made char- 
acteristic of him, but in the decrepitude and helplessness of age, 
" stretching forth his hands that another might gird him," and in 
the melancholy decline of judgment and reason, no longer able to 
choose his own good, " but carried by another whither he would 
not." Perceiving by the beginning of these sad tokens, that even 
as his Lord showed him, he must soon put off his earthly taber- 
nacle, he seems to have made the last effort of which his mind 
was capable in writing his second epistle, prepared then to resign 
himself to that wasting decay and chilling decline into the grave ? 
from which the divine gifts of inspiration shielded not the greatest 
of the apostles. He may have just survived the period of the 
destruction of Jerusalem, but probably the decay of mind and body 
foretold in those words of Jesus, which signified what manner of 
death he should die, soon after brought him to an oblivion of this 
life and all its events. The ruin of the temple and the nation, 
however, if he lived to hear of it, must have been an inspiring 
though mournful assurance of the certain fulfilment of that word 
which was not to pass away void, though heaven and earth should 
pass away ; and that day of Israel's fall must have risen on his aged 
eyes as with the dawning light of the last awful day, whose certain 
approach he had proclaimed with the latest effort of his pen. 



274 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

With the exception of these vague allusions, the writings of the 
New Testament are entirely silent as to the last days of the chief 
apostle. Not a hint is given of the few remaining actions of his 
life, nor of the mode, place, or time of his death ; and all these 
concluding points have been left to be settled by conjecture, or by 
tradition as baseless. The only passage which has been supposed 
to give any hint of the manner of his death, is that in the last 
chapter of John's gospel. " Jesus says to him — 1 1 most solemnly 
tell thee, when thou wast young, thou didst gird thyself and walk 
whither thou wouldst ; but when thou shalt be old, another shall 
gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not.' This he said, 
to make known by what sort of death he should glorify God." It 
has been commonly said that this is a distinct and unquestionable 
prophecy that he should in his old age be crucified, — the expres- 
sion, " another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst 
not," referring to his being bound to the cross and borne away 
to execution, since this was the only sort of death by which 
an apostle could be said, with much propriety or force, to " glo- 
rify God." And the long-established authority of tradition coin- 
ciding with this view, or rather, suggesting it, no very minute 
examination into the sense of the passage has often been made. 
But the words themselves are by no means decisive. Take a com- 
mon reader, who has never heard that Peter was crucified, and it 
would be hard for him to make out such a circumstance from the 
bare prophecy as given by John. Indeed such unbiased impres- 
sions of the sense of the passage will go far to justify the conclu- 
sion that the words imply nothing but that Peter was destined to 
pass a long life in the service of his Master, — that he should, after 
having worn out his bodily and mental energies in his devoted 
exertions, attain such an extreme decrepid old age as to lose the 
power of voluntary motion, and die thus, — without necessarily 
implying any bloody martyrdom. Will it be said that by such a 
quiet death he could not be considered as glorifying God ? The 
objection surely is founded in a misapprehension of the nature of 
those demonstrations of devotion, by which the glory of God 
is most effectually secured. There are other modes of mar- 
tyrdom than the dungeon, the sword, the axe, the flame, and the 
stone ; and in all ages since Peter, there have been thousands of 
martyrs who have, by lives steadily and quietly devoted to the 
cause of truth, no less glorified God, than those who were rapt to 
heaven in flame, in blood, and in tortures inflicted by a malignant 



peter's apostleship. 275 

persecution. Was not God truly glorified in the deaths of the aged 
Loyola, and Xavier, and Eliot, and Swartz, or the bright, early 
exits of Brainerd, Mills, Martyn, Parsons, Fisk, Milne, Ashmun, 
and hundreds whom the apostolic spirit of modern missions has 
sent forth to labors as devoted, and to deaths as glorious to God, 
as those of any who swell the deified lists of the ancient martyr- 
ologies ? The whole notion of a bloody martyrdom as an essential 
termination to the life of a saint, grew out of a papistical super- 
stition ; nor need the enlightened minds of those who can better 
appreciate the manner in which God's highest glory is secured by 
the lives and deaths of his servants, seek any such superfluous aids 
to crown the mighty course of the great apostolic chief, whose solid 
claims to the name and honors of Martyr rest on higher grounds 
than so insignificant an accident as the manner of his death. All 
those writers who pretend to particularize the mode of his depart- 
ure, connect it also with the utterly impossible fiction of his resi- 
dence at Rome, on which enough has been already said. Who 
will undertake to say, out of such a mass of matters, what is truth 
and what is falsehood ? And if the views above given, on the high 
authority of the latest writers of even the Romish church, are of 
any value for any purpose whatever, they are perfectly decisive 
against the notion of Peter's martyrdom at Rome, in the persecu- 
tion under Nero, since Peter was then in Babylon, far beyond the 
vengeance of the Caesar ; nor was he so foolish as ever after to 
have trusted himself in the reach of a perfectly unnecessary 
danger. The command of Christ was — " When you are perse- 
cuted in one city, flee into another," — the necessary and unques- 
tionable inference from which, was, that when out of the reach of 
persecution they should not wilfully go into it. This is a simple 
principle of Christian action, with which the fable-mongers were 
totally unacquainted, and they thereby afford the most satisfactory 
proof of the utter falsity of the actions and motives which they 
ascribe to the apostles. 

Referring to his being bound to the cross. — Tertullian seems to have first suggested 
this rather whimsical interpretation:—" Tunc Petrus ab altero cingitur, qiram cruci 
adstringitur." (Tertull. Scorpiac. 15.) There seems to be more rhyme than reason 
in the sentence, however. 

The rejection of this forced interpretation is by no means a new notion. The 
critical Tremellius long ago maintained that the verse had no reference whatever to 
a prophecy of Peter's crucifixion, though he probably had no idea of denying that 
Peter did actually die by crucifixion. Among more modern commentators, too, the 
prince of critics, Kuinoel, with whom are quoted Sender, Gurlitt, and Schott, utterly 
denies that a fair construction of the original will allow any prophetical idea to be 
based on it. The critical testimony of these great commentators on the true and just 
force of the words, is of the very highest value ; because all received the tale of 
37 



276 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Peter's crucifixion as true, having never examined the authority of the tradition, and 
not one of them pretended to deny that he really was crucified. But in spile of this 
pre-conceived erroneous historical notion, their nice sense of what was grammati- 
cally and critically just, would not allow them to pervert the passage to the support of 
this long-established view ; and they therefore pronounce it as merely expressive of 
the helplessness and imbecility of extreme old age, with which they make every word 
coincide. But Bloomfield, entirely carried away with the tide of antique authorities, 
is " surprised that so many recent commentators should deny that crucifixion is here 
alluded to, though they acknowledge that Peter suffered crucifixion." He might 
well be surprised, as I certainly was, on finding what mighty names had so disinterest- 
edly supported the interpretation which I had with fear and trembling adopted, in 
obedience to my own long-established, unaided convictions; but my surprise was of 
a decidedly agreeable sort. 

Peter's martyrdom.— The only authority which can be esteemed worthy of con- 
sideration on this point, is that of Clemens Romanus, who, in the latter part of the 
first century, (about the year 70, or as others say, 96,) in his epistle to the Corinthians, 
uses these words respecting Peter : — " Peter, on account of unrighteous hatred, un- 
derwent not one, or two, but many labors, and having thus borne his testimony, de- 
parted to the place of glory, which was his due," — (ovtios jxap-vpftcai iiroptidn els tov 
6<pei\6jitvov tottov 66^s.) Now it is by no means certain that the prominent word (mar- 
turesas) necessarily means " bearing testimony by death," or martyrdom in the modern 
sense. The primary sense of this verb is merely " to witness" in which simple meaning 
alone, it is used in the New Testament ; nor can any passage in the sacred writings be 
shown, in which this verb means " to bear witness to any cause, by death." This was 
a technical sense, (if I may so name it,) which the word at last acquired among the 
Fathers, when they were speaking of those who bore witness to the truth of the gos- 
pel of Christ by their blood; and it was a meaning which at last nearly excluded all 
the true original senses of the verb, limiting it mainly to the notion of a death by 
persecution for the sake of Christ. Thence our English words, martyr and martyr- 
dom. But that Clement by this use of the word, in this connexion, meant to convey 
the idea of Peter's having been hilled for the sake of Christ, is an opinion utterly 
incapable of proof, and moreover rendered improbable by the words joined to it in 
the passage. The sentence is — " Peter underwent many labors, and having thus 
borne witness" to the gospel truth, " went to the place of glory which be deserved." 
Now the adverb "thus," (o{b-ws,) seems to me most distinctly to show what was the 
nature of this testimony, and the manner also in which he bore it. It points out more 
plainly than any other words could, the fact that his testimony to the truth of the 
gospel was borne in the zealous labors of a devoted life, and not by the agonies of a 
bloody death. There is not in the whole context, nor in all the writings of Clement, 
any hint whatever that Peter was killed for the sake of the gospel ; and we are therefore 
required by every sound rule of interpretation, to stick to the primary sense of the 
verb, in this passage. Lardner most decidedly mis-translates it in the text of his 
work, so that any common reader would be grossly deceived as to the expression in 
the original of Clement, — (< Peter underwent many labors, till at last being martyred, 
he went," &c. The Greek word, ovras, (houtos,) means always—" in this manner," 
" thus," " so," and is not a mere expletive, like the English phrase, " and so," which 
is a mere form of transition from one part of the narrative to the other. 

In the similar passage of Clement which refers to Paul, there is something in the 
connexion which may seem to favor the conclusion that he understood Paul to have 
been put to death by the Roman officers. His words are—" and after having borne 
his testimony before governors, he was thus sent out of the world," &c. Here the 
word " thus," coming after the participle, may perhaps be considered, in view also of 
its other connexions, as implying his removal from the world by a violent death, in 
consequence of the testimony borne by him before the governors. This, however, will 
bear some dispute, and will need a fuller discussion elsewhere. 

But in respect to the passage which refers to Peter, the burden of proof may fairly 
be said to lie on those who maintain the old opinion. Here the word is shown to 
have, in the New Testament, no such application to death as it has since acquired ; 
and the question is, whether Clemens Romanus, a man himself of the apostolic age, 
who lived and perhaps wrote, before the canon was completed, had already learned 
to give a new meaning to a verb, before so simple and unlimited in its applications. 
No person can pretend to trace this meaning to within a century of the Clementine 
age, nor does Suicer refer to any one who knew of such use before Clemens Alex- 
andrinus. (See his Thes. ; Maprvp.) Clement himself uses it in the same epistle 



277 

(§ xvii.) in its unquestionable primary sense, speaking of Abraham as having re- 
ceived an honorable testimony, — (i/japrvpjS*? ;) for who will say that Abraham was 
martyred, in the modern sense'? The fact, too, that Clement no where else gives the 
least glimmer of a hint that Peter died any where but in his bed, fixes the position 
here taken, beyond all possibility of attack, except by its being shown that he uses 
this verb somewhere else, with the sense of death unquestionably attached to it. 

There is no other early writer who can be said to speak of the manner of Peter's 
death, before Dionysius of Corinth, who says that " Peter and Paul having taught in 
Italy together, bore their testimony'''' {by death, if you please,) " about the same time." 
An argument might here also be sustained on the word tyaprtpri<Tdv ; , (emarturesan,) 
but the evidence of Dionysius, mixed as it is with a demonstrated fable, is not worth 
a verbal criticism. The same may be said of Tertullian, Lactantius, Eusebius, and 
the rest of the later Fathers, as given in the note on pages 245 — 250. 

An examination of the word Mdprvp, in Suicer's Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus, will 
show the critical, that even in later times, this word did not necessarily imply " one 
who bore his testimony to the truth at the sacrifice of life." Even Chrysostom, 
in whose time the peculiar limitation of the term might be supposed to be very well 
established, uses the word in such applications as to show that its original force was 
not wholly lost. By Athanasius, too, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. are styled 
martyrs. Gregory Nazianzen also speaks of " living martyrs." (£wvr£? fxaprvpes.) 
Theophylact calls the apostle John a martyr, though he declares him to have passed 
through the hands of his persecutors unhurt, and to have died by the course of nature. 
Clemens Alexandrinus has similar uses of the term ; and the Apostolical Constitu- 
tions, of doubtful date, but much later than the first century, also give it in such ap- 
plications. Suicer distinctly specifies several classes of persons, not martyrs in the 
modern sense, to whom the Greek word is nevertheless applied in the writings of 
even the later Fathers; as " those who testified the truth of the gospel of Christ, at 
the peril of life merely, without the loss of it," — "those who obeyed the requirements 
of the gospel, by restraining passion," &c. In some of these instances, however, it 
is palpable that the application of the word to such persons is secondary, and made in 
rather a poetical way, with a reference to the more common meaning of loss of life 
for the sake of Christ, since there is always implied a testimony at the risk or loss of 
something; still the power of these instances to render doubtful the meaning of the 
term is unquestionable. (See Suicer's Thes. Ecc. Mdprvp, III. 2, 5, 6.) 

In justification of the certainty with which sentence is pronounced against the 
whole story of Peter's ever having gone to Rome, it is only necessary to refer to the 
full statements on pages 245 — 250, in which the complete array of ancient evi- 
dence on the point, is given by Dr. Murdock. If the support of great names is 
needed, those of Scaliger, Salmasius, Spanheim, and Bower, all mighty minds in 
criticism, are enough to justify the seeming boldness of the opinion, that Peter never 
went west of the Hellespont, and probably never embarked on the Mediterranean. 
In conclusion of the whole refutation of this long-established error, the matter cannot 
be more fairly presented, than in the words with which the critical and learned Bower 
opens his Lives of the Popes : 

" To avoid being imposed upon, we ought to treat tradition as we do a notorious 
and known liar, to whom we give no credit, unless what he says is confirmed to us 
by some person of undoubted veracity. If it is affirmed by him alone, we can at most 
but suspend our belief, not rejecting it as false, because a liar may sometimes speak 
truth; but we cannot, upon his bare authority, admit it as true. Now that St. Peter 
was at Rome, that he was bishop of Rome, we are told by tradition alone, which, at 
the same time, tells us of so many strange circumstances attending his coming to that 
metropolis, his staying in it, his withdrawing from it, &c, that in the opinion of every 
unprejudiced man, the whole must savor strongly of romance. Thus we are told 
that St. Peter went to Rome chiefly to oppose Simon, the celebrated magician ; that 
at their first interview, at which Nero himself was present, he flew up into the air, 
in the sight of the emperor and the whole city ; but that the devil, who had thus 
raised him, struck with dread and terror at the name of Jesus, whom the apostle 
invoked, let him fall to the ground, by which fall he broke his legs. Should you 
question the truth of this tradition at Rome, they would show you the prints of St. 
Peter's knees in the stone, on which he kneeled on this occasion, and another stone 
still dyed with the blood of the magician. This account seems to have been bor- 
rowed from Suetonius, who speaks of a person that, in the public sports, undertook 
to fly, in the presence of the emperor Nero ; but on his first attempt, fell to the ground j 



278 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

by which fall his blood sprung out with such violence that it reached the emperor's 
canopy." 

Dr. Murdock, in immediate continuation of his remarks on the testimony of the 
Fathers respecting Peter's visit to Rome, given above on pp. 245 — 250, thus cau- 
tiously but powerfully meets the final question : 

" But the testimony of the earlier Fathers does not necessarily carry Peter to 
Rome, till after the year 64, nor does it make him at all bishop of Rome. It may 
therefore be true, notwithstanding all the objections which have been stated against 
Peter's earlier arrival and his episcopacy there. And the number and agreement of 
the witnesses, and their proximity to the apostolic age, should induce us not to slight 
their testimony, or treat it as if of no weight. And yet it is possible they were misled 
by some popular tales. If we reject, as many do, the report of Paul's release from 
captivity, in the year 64, we must also reject the testimony of the early Fathers re- 
specting his going with Peter to Rome, and there suffering martyrdom with him, in 
the year 68. But admitting Paul's release from his first captivity, then, I can see no ob- 
jections to admitting this testimony of the early Fathers, except the following : — Paul 
wrote his second epistle to Timothy at Rome, and during his last confinement there ; 
that is — a little before he and Peter (according to the tradition) were put to death. Yet 
on reading this epistle, we find that Peter is not once named, or even alluded to, from 
the beginning to the end of it. Paul speaks of his own bonds, but not a word of 
Peter's. He tells us he was " ready to be offered up," and that the time of his depart- 
ure was at hand, but says not a word of Peter's being to suffer with him, at the same 
time. He sends the salutations of five or six different persons, and of the whole 
church, but none from Peter. He speaks of many of his fellow-laborers in the gos- 
pel, who were dispersed here and there, and mentions who were at Rome, but makes 
no mention of Peter. Nay, he says expressly — " only Luke is with me. Take Mark, 
and bring him with thee." (2 Tim. iv. 11.) Now all this certainly is very strange, 
if Peter was then with Paul at Rome, a fellow-prisoner, and both soon to be put to 
death on the same day." (Murdock's MS. Lectures. Abr. series. No. V. pp. 27, 28.) 



THE SECOND SUPPOSED VISIT TO ROME. 

The notion of his having- ended his life in Rome, and of his being cruci- 
fied there during the first Roman persecution of the Christians, is connect- 
ed with another adventure with that useful character, Simon Magus, who, 
as the tale runs, after being first vanquished so thoroughly by Peter, in the 
reign of Claudius, returned to Rome, in the reign of Nero, and made such 
progress again in his magical tricks, as to rise into the highest favor with 
this emperor, as he had with the former. This of course required a 
new effort from Peter, which ended in the disgrace and death of the 
magician, who, attempting to fly through the air in the presence of the 
emperor and people in the theatre, was, by the prayer of Peter, caused to 
fall from his aspiring course to the ground, by which he was so much in- 
jured as to die soon after. The emperor being provoked at the loss of his 
favorite, turned all his wrath against the apostle who had been directly 
instrumental in his ruin, and imprisoned him with the design of executing 
him as soon as might be convenient. While in these circumstances, or, 
as others say, before he was imprisoned* he was earnestly exhorted by the 
disciples in Rome, to make his escape. He therefore, reluctantly began 
to move off, one dark night ; but had hardly got beyond the walls of the 
city, — indeed, he was just passing out of the gate way, — when, whom 
should he meet but Jesus Christ himself, coming towards Rome. Peter 
asked, with some reasonable surprise, " Lord ! where are you going ¥' 
Christ answered, " I am coming to Rome, to be crucified again." Peter at 
once took this as a hint that he ought to have stayed, and that Christ 
meant to be crucified again in the crucifixion of his apostle. He accord- 



peter's apostleship. 279 

ingly turned right about, and went back into the city, where, having given 
to the wondering brethren an account of the reasons of his return, he was 
immediately seized, and was crucified, to the glory of God. Now it is a 
sufficient answer to this or any similar fable, to judge the blasphemous in- 
ventor out of his own mouth, and out of the instructions given by Christ 
himself to his servants, for their conduct, in all cases where they were 
threatened with persecution, as above quoted. And Peter would no doubt 
have answered any inquiry as to the propriety of flight in such a case, by 
the words of Christ himself — " When you are persecuted in one city, flee 
into another." 

The inventors of fables go on to give us the minute particulars of Peter's 
death, and especially note the circumstance that he was crucified with his 
head downwards and his feet uppermost, he himself having desired that it 
might be done in that manner, because he thought himself unworthy to be 
crucified as his Master was. This was a mode sometimes adopted by the 
Romans, as an additional pain and ignominy. But Peter must have been 
singularly accommodating to his persecutors, to have suggested this im- 
provement upon his tortures to such malignant murderers ; and must have 
manifested a spirit more accordant with that of a savage defying his ene- 
mies to increase his agonies, than with that of the mild, submissive Jesus. 
And such has been the evident absurdity of the story, that many of the 
most ardent receivers of fables have rejected this circumstance as improba- 
ble, more especially as it is not found among the earliest stories of his 
crucifixion, but evidently seems to have been appended among later im- 
provements. 

Perhaps it is hardly worth while to dismiss these fables altogether without first 
alluding to the rather ancient one, first given by Clemens Alexandrinus, (Stromat. 7, 
p. 736,) and copied verbatim by Eusebius, (H. E. III. 30.) Both the reverend Fathers, 
however, introduce the story as a tradition, a mere on dit, prefacing it with the ex- 
pressive phrase — " They say," &c. (<paol.) " The blessed Peter seeing his wife led to 
death, was pleased with the honor of her being thus called by God to return home, 
and thus addressed her in words of exhortation and consolation, calling her byname, 
— ' O woman ! remember the Lord.' " The story comes up from the hands of tradi- 
tion rather too late, however, to be entitled to any credit whatever, being recorded by 
Clemens Alexandrinus full 200 years after Christ. It was probably invented in the 
times when it was thought worth while to cherish the spirit of voluntary martyrdom, 
among even the female sex ; for which purpose instances were sought out or invented 
respecting those of the apostolic days. That Peter had a wife is perfectly true ; and 
it is also probable that she accompanied him about on his travels, as would appear 
from a passage in Paul's writings; (1 Cor. ix. 5;) but beyond this, nothing is known 
of her life or death. Similar fables might be endlessly multiplied from papistical 
sources; more especially from the Clementine novels, and the apostolical romances 
of Abdias Babylonius; but the object of the present work is true history, and it would 
require a whole volume much larger than this to give all the details of Christian my- 
thology. 

Among the traditions of the third and fourth centuries, there is also a story that 
Peter left a daughter named Petronia, of whose supposed life no incident is recorded, 
except that, like almost every other fabled saint, she died by martyrdom. 

HIS TOMB. 

Dying of old age in the great though decayed ancient city, 
which had been to him, as well as to numerous refugees from Pa- 
lestine, a safe home and a useful station in his declining years, 
the chief apostle must have laid his bones in Babylon. He sleeps 



280 _ LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

in that ancient seat of empire, once the mournful scene of the cap- 
tivity of Judah, at the ruin of the first temple and city, but after- 
wards, by a strange revolution of circumstances, a place of refuge 
and peace to the remnant that escaped that second and last fall of 
Jerusalem. Babylon, the primeval seat of empire, of old "the 
glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' pride," doomed 
like Sodom and Gomorrah, — in the last days of its being, thus 
became consecrated by the grave of one blest above all men, as 
the chief minister of that faith whose dominion was to stretch 
over lands and nations vaster and mightier than a hundred Chal- 
dean empires. The city doomed to become the dwelling-place of 
serpents and wild beasts, to be a spot so desolate and loathsome as 
to fright the savage wanderer from pitching his tent in the shade 
of its ruins, did not, indeed, with the less certainty, fall from its 
latter glories to the most literal completion of its fate ; but the 
dreary waste and marshy void that show the place of its glories, 
are hallowed to the Christian reader, by the bare probability of 
their covering Peter's grave, with an influence that transcends the 
darkest power of all the maledictions and imprecations of ancient 
prophecy. 

Of course, the fables invented about Peter, by the inveterate papists, do 
not cease with his death. In regard to the place of his tomb, a new story 
was needed, and it is accordingly given with the usual particularity. It is 
said that he was buried at Rome in the Vatican plain, in the district beyond 
the Tiber, in which he was supposed to have first preached among the Jews, 
and where stood the great circus of Nero, in which the apostle is said to 
have been crucified. Over this bloody spot, a church was afterwards raised 
by Constantine the Great, who chose for its site part of the ground that 
had been occupied by the circus, and the spaces where the temples of Mars 
and Apollo had stood. The church, though of no great architectural 
beauty, was a building of great magnitude, being three hundred feet long, 
and more than one hundred and fifty feet wide. This building stood 
nearly twelve hundred years, when becoming ruinous in spite of all repairs, 
it was removed to give place to the present cathedral church of St. Peter, 
now the most immense and magnificent building in the world, — not too 
much praised in the graphic verse in which the pilgrim-poet sets it beyond 
all comparison with the greatest piles of ancient or modern art: 

" But lo! the dome— the vast and wondrous dome, 
To which Diana's marvel was a cell — 
Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb ! 
I have beheld the Ephesians' miracle — 
Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwell 
The hyena and the jackall in their shade ; 
I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell 
Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have surveyed 
lis sanctuary, the while the usurping Moslem prayed. 






peter ; s apostleship. 281 

" But thou, of temples old, or altars new, 
Standest alone — with nothing like to thee — 
Worthiest of God, the holy and the true ! 
Since Zion's desolation, when that He 
Forsook his former city, what could be 
Of earthly structures in his honor piled, 
Of a sublimer aspect?' — 

THE VISION OF HIS RISING. 

Within the most holy place of this vast sanctuary, — beneath the 
very centre of that wonderful dome, which rises in such unequaled 
vastness above it, redounding far more to the glory of the man 
who reared it, than of the God whose altar it covers, — in the 
vaulted crypt which lies below the pavement, is a shrine, before 
which a hundred lamps are constantly burning, and over which 
the prayers of thousands are daily rising. This is called the tomb 
of the saint to whom the whole pile is dedicated, and from whom 
the great high priest of that temple draws his claim to the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven, with the power to bind and loose, and the 
assurance of heaven's sanction on his decrees. But what a con- 
trast is all this " pride, pomp, and circumstance," to the bare purity 
of the faith and character of the simple man whose life and con- 
duct are recorded on these pages ! If any thing whatever may be 
drawn as a well-authorized conclusion from the details that have 
been given of his actions and motives, it is that Simon Peter was 
a " plain, blunt" man, laboring devotedly for the object to which 
he had been called by Jesus, and with no other view whatever, 
than the advancement of the kingdom of his Master, — the incul- 
cation of a pure spiritual faith, which should seek no support, nor 
the slightest aid, from the circumstances which charm the eye and 
ear, and win the soul through the mere delight impressed upon 
the senses, as the idolatrous priests who now claim his name 
and ashes, maintain their dominion in the hearts of millions of 
worse than pagan worshipers. His whole life and labors were 
pointed at the very extirpation of forms and ceremonies, — the erec- 
tion of a pure, rational, spiritual dominion in the hearts of man- 
kind, so that the blessings of a glorious faith, which for two thou- 
sand years before had been confined to the limits of a ceremonial 
system, might now, disenthralled from all the bonds of sense, and 
exalted above the details of tedious forms, of natural distinctions, 
and of antique rituals, — spread over a field as wide as humanity. 
For this he lived and toiled, and in the clear hope of a triumphant 
fulfilment of that plan, he died. And if, from his forgotten, un- 



282 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

known grave, among the ashes of the Chaldean Babylon, and from 
the holy rest which is for the blessed, the now glorified apostle 
could be called to the renewal of breathing, earthly life, and see 
the results of his energetic, simple-minded devotion, — what wonder, 
what joy, what grief, what glory, what shame, would not the reve- 
lation of these mighty changes move within him ! The simple, 
pure gospel which he had preached in humble, faithful obedience 
to the divine command, without a thought of glory or reward, now 
exalted in the unintelligent reverence of hundreds of millions ! — but 
where appreciated in its simplicity and truth ? The cross on which 
his Master was doomed to ignominy, now exalted as the sign of 
salvation, and the seal of God's love to the world ! — (a spectacle 
as strange to a Roman or Jewish eye, as to a modern would be the 
gallows, similarly consecrated !) — but who burning with that devo- 
tion which led him of old to bear that shameful burden ? His own 
humble name raised to a place above the brightest of Roman, of 
Hellenic, of Hebrew, or Chaldean story ! but made, alas ! the sup- 
porter of a tyranny over souls, far more grinding and remorseless 
than any which he labored to overthrow. The fabled spot of his 
grave housed in a temple to which the noblest shrine of ancient 
heathenism "was but a cell !" but in which are celebrated, under 
the sanction of his sainted name, the rites of an idolatry, than 
which that of Italy, or Greece, or Syria, or Egypt, would seem 
more spiritual, — and of tedious, unmeaning ceremonies, compared 
with which the whole formalities of the Levitical ritual might be 
pronounced simple and practical ! 

These would be the first sights that would meet the eye of the 
disentombed apostle, if he should rise over the spot which claims 
the honors of his martyr-tomb, and the consecration of his com- 
mission. How mournfully would he turn from all the mighty 
honors of that idolatrous worship, — from the deifying glories of 
that sublimest of all shrines that ever rose over the earth ! How 
earnestly would he long for the high temple of one humble, pure 
heart, that knew and felt the simplicity of the truth as it was in 
Jesus ! How joyfully would he hail the manifestations of that 
active evangelizing spirit that consecrated and fitted him for his 
great missionary enterprise ! His amazed and grieved soul would 
doubtless here and there feel its new view rewarded, in the sight 
of much that was accordant with the holy feeling that inspired the 
apostolic band. All over Christendom, might he find scattered the 
occasional lights of a purer devotion, and on many lands he would 



peter's apostleship. 283 

see the trtita pouring, in something of the clear splendor for which 
he hoped and labored. But of the countless souls that owned 
Jesus as Lord and Savior, millions on millions, — and vast numbers, 
too, even in the lands of a reformed faith, — would be found still 
clinging to the vain support of forms, and names, and observances ; 
and but a few, a precious few, who had learned what that mean- 
eth — " I will have mercy and not sacrifice" — works and not words, 
—deeds and not creeds, — high, simple, active, energetic, enter- 
prising devotion, and not cloistered reverence — chanceled worship, 
—or soul-wearying rituals. Would not the apostle, sickened with 
the revelations of such a resurrection, and more appalled than de- 
lighted, call on the power that brought him up from the peaceful 
rest of the blessed, to give him again the calm repose of those who 
die in the Lord, rather than the idolatrous honors of such an apo- 
theosis, or the strange sight of the results of such an evangeliza- 
tion ? — " Let me enter again the gates of Hades, but not the por- 
tals of these temples of superstition. Let me lie down with the 
souls of the humble, but not in the shrine of this heathenish pile. 
Leave me once more to rest from my labors, with my works still 
following ; and call me not from this repose till the labors I left on 
earth unachieved, have been better done, f We did not follow 
these cunningly-devised fables, when we made known to men the 
power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but the simple 
eye-witness story of his majesty.' ' We had a surer word of pro- 
phecy ; and. well would it have been, if these had turned their 
wandering eyes to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, and 
kept that steady beacon in view, through the stormy gloom of 
ages, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in their hearts.' 
These are not 'the new heavens and the new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness, for which we looked, according to God's 
promise.' Those must the faithful still look for, believing that 
' Jehovah, with whom a thousand years are as one day, is not slack 
concerning his promise, but desires all to come to repentance,' and 
will come himself at last in the achievment of our labors. Then 
call me." 

As sure as there is any truth in the revelation which Peter pro- 
claimed, and to which he devoted his life, and whose distant but 
certain consummation he saw with his latest vision, and attested 
with the last remaining effort of his pen, — the day will come when 
he will indeed arise from his forgotten grave, and in the light of 

the latter days, glance over the mighty extensions and results of 
38 



284 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

his work. When his eye shall survey the numberless millions 
that claim salvation and eternal happiness through the faith which 
he preached, what will be the one kindred principle by which, 
among the inconceivable varieties of creed and doctrine professed 
by those who own him as the first human minister of God's last 
revelation, he will recognize the essence and the unity of the 
Christian faith T What will be the characteristic by which he will 
know that the same mind is in us which was also in him? Will 
it not be that pure, devoted affection for his Lord, which was the 
substance of his faith and the animating principle of his devotion ? 
The love for man and for man's Redeemer, which flows forth spon- 
taneously from the knowledge and the feeling of the moral weak- 
ness of the one and the divine perfection of the other, will be the 
test that will reveal at the first glance the spirit of Christianity. 
This, of itself and alone, will be the key of heaven ; and just in 
proportion to the active development and manifestation of this 
principle, in such works as constituted the function and the proof 
of his apostleship, will be the highth to which the spirit shall 
mount in the scale of eternal being. How vain and idle then, in 
the light of such a day, must appear the cumbrous and artificial 
array of doctrines and creeds and observances, with which the hosts 
of modern sectarians so hedge up the path and perplex the search 
of the inquirer for truth and salvation ! The spirit of love which 
was the consolation of Peter's life, shall deepen the enjoyments of 
his eternal rest, and highten the rapture with which he will hail 
that Lord's appearing. Even as one of our own poets has pictured, 
in his noble vision of the last judgment, the holy joy of the apos- 
tolic band at the dazzling revelation of their beloved Lord in the 
majesty of his glories : 

" What a tide 
Of overwhelming thoughts pressed to their souls, 
When now, as he so frequent promised, throned, 
And circled by the hosts uf heaven, they traced 
The well-known lineaments of him who shared 
Their wants and sufferings here"! Full many a day 
Of fasting spent with him, and night of prayer, 
Rushed to their swelling hearts. Before the rest, 
Close to the angelic spears, had Peter urged, 
Tears in his eye, love throbbing at his breast, 
As if to touch' his vesture, or to catch 
The murmur of his voice. On him and them 
Jesus beamed down benignant looks of love." 

THE PROGRESS OF HIS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT. 

What a life was this ! Its opening scenes present a poor fisher- 
man, in a rude, despised province, toiling day by day in a low, 



285 

laborious business, — living with hardly a hope above the beasts 
that perish. By the side of that lake, one morning, walked a 
mysterious man, who, with mild words but wondrous deeds, called 
the poor fisherman to leave all, and follow him. Won by the 
commanding promise of the call, he obeyed, and followed that new 
Master, with high hopes of earthly glory for a while, which at 
last were darkened and crushed in the gradual developments of a 
far deeper plan than his rude mind could at first have appreciated. 
But still he followed him, through toils and sorrows, through reve- 
lations and trials, at last to the sight of his bloody cross ; and fol- 
lowed him, still unchanged in heart, basely and almost hopelessly 
wicked. The fairest trial of his virtue proved him, after all, lazy, 
bloody-minded, but cowardly, — lying, and utterly faithless in the 
promise of new life from the grave. But a change came over him. 
He, so lately a cowardly disowner of his Master's name, now, with 
a courageous martyr-spirit dared the wrath of the awful magnates 
of his nation, in attesting his faith in Christ. Once a wild, impet- 
uous, fighting Galilean, — henceforth he lived an unresisting sub- 
ject of abuse, stripes, bonds, imprisonment, and threatened death. 
When was there ever such a triumph of grace in the heart of 
man ? The conversion of Paul himself could not be compared 
with it, as a moral miracle. The apostle of Tarsus was a refined, 
well-educated man, brought up in the great college of the Jewish 
law, theology, and literature, and not wholly unacquainted with 
the Grecian writers. The power of a high spiritual faith ove? 
such a mind, however steeled by prejudice, was not so wonderful 
as its renovating, refining, and elevating influence on the rude 
fisherman of Bethsaida. Paul was a man of considerable natural 
genius, and he shows it on every page of his writings ; but in 
Peter there are seen few evidences of a mind naturally exalted, 
and the whole tenor of his words and actions seems to imply a 
character of sound common sense, and great energy, but of per- 
ceptions and powers of expression, great, not so much by inborn 
genius, as by the impulse of a higher spirit within him, gradually 
bringing him to the possession of new faculties, — intellectual as 
well as moral. This was the spirit which raised him from the 
humble task of a fisherman, to that of drawing men and nations 
within the compass of the gospel, and to a glory and a dominion 
of adoration and fame, which not all the founders of ancient em- 
pire, nor all the gods of ancient superstition, ever attained. The 
temples of Jove now bear the name and ring with the praises of 



286 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the Galilean leader, — the throne of the Caesars is displaced by the 
chair of Peter : the proud column which commemorated the wide 
northern and eastern triumphs of the truly imperial Trajan, is 
known to the modern Roman only as the pillar of St. Peter ; 

" and apostolic statues climb 
To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime." 

HIS FAME. 

Most empty honors ! Why hew down the marble mountains, 
and pile them into walls as massive and as lasting ? Why rear the 
stately column, the colossal image, the solemn arches, and the lofty 
towers, to overtop the everlasting hills with their heavenward 
heads ? Or lift the skiey dome into the middle heaven, almost out- 
swelling the blue vault itself? Why task the soul of art for new 
creations to line the long-drawn aisles, and gem the fretted roof 
with the thousand combinations of form, shade, and color, that the 
hand of genius can embody? There is a glory that shall out- 
last all 

" The cloud-capped towers, — the gorgeous palaces, — 

The solemn temples, — the great globe itself, — 

Yea, all which it inherit;" 

— a glory far beyond the brightest things of earth in its brightest 
day ; for " they that be wise shall shine as the firmament, and they 
that turn many to righteousness as the stars, for ever and ever." 
Yet in this the apostle rejoices not ; — not that adoring millions 
Jift his name in prayers, and thanksgivings, and songs, and incense, 
from the noblest piles of man's creation, to the glory of a god, — 
not even that over all the earth, in all ages, till the perpetual hills 
shall bow with time, — till " eternity grows gray," the pure in heart 
will yield him the highest human honors of the faith, on which 
nations, continents, and worlds, hang their hopes of salvation ; — 
he " rejoices, not that the spirits" of angels or men " are subject to 
him, — but that his name is written in heaven." 



ANDREW. 



HIS SCRIPTURAL HISTORY. 

The name of this apostle is here brought in directly after his 
eminent brother, in accordance with the lists of the apostles given 
by Matthew and Luke, in their gospels, where they seem to dis- 
pose them all in pairs ; and very naturally, in this case, prefer 
family affinity as a principle of arrangement, putting together in 
this and the following instances, those who were sons of the same 
father. The most eminent son of Jonah, deservedly taking the 
highest place on all the lists, his brother might very properly so 
far share in the honors of this distinction, as to be mentioned along 
with him, without any necessary implication of the possession of 
any of that moral and intellectual superiority, on which Peter's 
claim to the first place was grounded. These seem, at least, to 
have been sufficient reasons for Matthew, in arranging the apos- 
tles, and for Luke in his gospel ; while in his history of the Acts 
of the Apostles, the latter followed a different plan, putting Andrew 
fourth on the list, and giving the sons of Zebedee a place before 
him, as Mark did also. The uniform manner in which James and 
John are mentioned along with Peter on great occasions, to the 
total neglect of Andrew, seems to imply that this apostle was quite 
behind his brother in those excellences which fitted him for the 
leading place in the great Christian enterprise ; since it is most 
reasonable to believe that, if he had possessed faculties of such a 
high order, he would have been readily selected to enjoy with him 
the peculiar privileges of a most intimate personal intercourse with 
Jesus, and to share the high honors of his peculiar revelations of 
glory and power. 

The question of the relative age of the two sons of Jonah has 
been already settled in the beginning of the life of Peter ; and in 
the same part of the work have also been given all the particulars 
about their family, rank, residence, and occupation, which are de- 
sirable for the illustration of the lives and characters of both. So, 
too, throughout the whole of the sacred narrative, every thing that 



28S LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

could concern Andrew has been abundantly expressed and com- 
mented on, in the life of Peter. The occasions on which the 
name of this apostle is mentioned in the New Testament, indeed, 
except in the bare enumeration of the twelve, are only four, — his 
first introduction to Jesus, — his actual call, — the feeding of the five 
thousand, (where he said to Jesus — " there is a lad here with five 
barley-loaves and two small fishes ; but what are these among so 
many?") — and the circumstance of his being present with his 
brother and the sons of Zebedee at the scene on the mount of 
Olives, when Christ foretold the utter ruin of the temple. Of these 
three scenes, in the first only did he perform such a part as to re- 
ceive any other than a bare mention in the gospel history ; nor 
even in that solitary circumstance does his conduct seem to have 
been of much importance, except as leading his brother to the 
knowledge of Jesus. From the circumstance, however, of his 
being specified as the first of all the twelve who had a personal 
acquaintance with Jesus, he has been honored by many writers 
with the distinguishing title of " the first called," although 
others have claimed the dignity of this appellation for another 
apostle, in whose life the particular reasons for such a claim will 
be mentioned. 

The first called. — In Greek npwr6K\riros, (protokletos,) by which name he is called 
by Nicephorus Callistus, (H. E. II. 39,) and by several of the Greek Fathers, as 
quoted by Cangius, (Gloss, in voc.) and referred to by Lampe, (Prolegom. in Joan- 
nem.) Suicer, however, makes no reference whatever to this term. 

From the minute narrative of the circumstances of the call, 
given by John in the first chapter of his gospel, it appears, that 
Andrew, excited by the fame of the great Baptizer, had left his 
home at Bethsaida, and gone to Bethabara, (on the same side of the 
Jordan, but farther south,) where the solemn and ardent appeals of 
the bold herald of inspiration so far equaled the expectation 
awakened by rumor, that, along with vast multitudes who seem to 
have made but an indifferent progress in religious knowledge, 
though brought to the repentance and confession of their sins, he 
was baptized in the Jordan, and was also attached to the person of 
the great preacher in a peculiar manner, as it would seem, aiming 
at a still more advanced state of indoctrination, than ordinary con- 
verts could be expected to attain. While in this diligent personal 
attendence on his new Master, he was one day standing with him 
upon the banks of the Jordan, the great scene of the mystic sacra- 
ment, listening to the incidental instructions which fell from the 
lips of the holy man, in company with another disciple, his coun- 



ANDREW. 289 

try man and friend. In the midst of the conversation, perhaps, 
while discoursing upon the deep question then in agitation, about 
the advent of the Messiah, suddenly the great preacher exclaimed 
— " Behold the Lamb of God !" The two disciples at once turned 
their eyes towards the person thus solemnly designated as the Mes- 
siah, and saw walking by them, a stranger, whose demeanor was 
such as to mark him for the object of the Baptizer's apostrophe. 
With one accord, the two hearers at once left the teacher, who 
now referred them to a higher source of truth and purity, and 
both followed together the footsteps of the wonderful stranger, of 
whose real character they knew nothing, though their curiosity 
must have been most highly excited, by the solemn mystery of the 
words in which his greatness was announced. As they hurried 
after him, the sound of their hasty feet fell on the ear of the re- 
tiring stranger, who turning towards his inquiring pursuers, mildly 
met their curious glances with the question — " Whom seek ye ?" 
— thus giving them an opportunity to state their wishes for his ac- 
quaintance. They eagerly answered by the question, implying their 
desire for a permanent knowledge of him, — " Rabbi ! (Teacher,) 
where dwellest thou ?" He kindly answered them with a polite 
invitation to accompany him to his lodgings ; for there is no reason 
to believe that they went with him to his permanent home in Ca- 
pernaum or Nazareth ; since Jesus was probably then staying at 
some place near the scene of the baptism. Being hospitably and 
familiarly entertained by Jesus, as his intimate friends, it being then 
four o'clock in the afternoon, they remained with him till the next 
day, enjoying a direct personal intercourse, which gave them the 
best opportunities for learning his character and his power to im- 
part to them the high instructions which they were prepared to 
expect, by the solemn annunciation of the great Baptizer ; and, at 
the same time, it shows their own earnestness and zeal for acquiring 
a knowledge of the Messiah, as well as his benignant familiarity 
in thus receiving them immediately into such a domestication with 
him. After this protracted interview with Jesus, Andrew seems 
to have attained the most perfect conviction that his newly adopted 
teacher was all that he had been declared to be ; and in the eager- 
ness of a warm fraternal affection, he immediately sought his dear 
brother Simon, and exultingly announced to him the great results 
of his yesterday's introduction to the wonderful man ; — " We have 
found the Messiah !" Such a declaration, made with the confidence 
of one who knew by personal experience, at once secured the at- 



290 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tention of the no less ardent Simon ; and he accordingly gave him- 
self up to the guidance of the confident Andrew, who led him 
directly to Jesus, anxious that his beloved brother should also 
share in the high favor of the Messiah's friendship and instruction. 
This is the most remarkable recorded circumstance of Andrew's 
life ; and on his ready adherence to . Jesus, and the circumstance 
that he, first of all the disciples, declared him to be the Messiah, 
may be founded a just claim for a most honorable distinction of 
Andrew. 

Bethabara. — Some of the later critics seem disposed to reject this now common 
reading, and to adopt in its place that of Bethany, which is supported by such a num- 
ber of old manuscripts and versions, as to offer a strong defense against the word at 
present established. Both the Syriac versions, the Arabic, Aethiopic, the Vulgate, 
and the Saxon, give " Bethany ;" and Origen, from whom the other reading seems to 
have arisen, confesses that the previously established word was Bethany, which he 
(with about as much regard for evidence as could be expected before the rules by 
which such questions are settled had been fixed) rejected for the unauthorized Beih- 
abara, on the ground that there is such a place on the Jordan, mentioned in Judg. 
vii. 24, — while Bethany is elsewhere in the gospels described as close to Jerusalem, on 
the mount of Olives ; the venerable Father never apprehending the probability of two 
different places bearing the same name, nor referring to the etymology of Bethany, 
which is rp;N no, {beth any ah,) " the house (or place) of a boat," equivalent to a 
" ferry." (Origen on John, quoted by Wolf.) Chrysostom and Epiphanius are also 
quoted by Lampe, as defending this perversion on similar grounds. Heracleon, Non- 
nus, and Beza are referred to in defense of Bethany ; and among the more modern, 
Mill, Simon, and others, are quoted by Wolf on the same side. Campbell and Bloom- 
field also defend this view. Scultetus, Grotius, and Casaubon argue in favor of Betha- 
bara. Lightfoot makes a long argument to prove that Bethany, the true reading, 
means not any village or particular spot of that name, but the province or tract, called 
Batanea, lying beyond the Jordan, in the northern part of its course, — a conjecture 
hardly supported by the structure of the word, nor by the opinion of any other writer. 
This Bethany beyond the Jordan, seems to have been thus particularized as to posi- 
tion, in order to distinguish it from the place of the same name near Jerusalem. Its 
exact situation cannot now be ascertained ; but it was commonly placed about fifteen 
or twenty miles south of Gennesaret. 

Lamb of God. — This expression has been the subject of much discussion, and has 
been amply illustrated by the labors of learned commentators. Whether John the 
Baptizer expected Jesus to atone for the sins of the world, by death, has been a ques- 
tion ably argued by Kuinoel and Gabler against, and by Lampe, Wolf, and Bloom- 
field, for the idea of an implied sacrifice and expiation. The latter writer in par- 
ticular, is very full and candid : Wolf also gives a great number of references, and 
to these authors the critical must resort for the minutiae of a discussion, too heavy 
and protracted for this work. (See the above authors on John i. 29.) 

After narrating the particulars of his call, in which he was 
merely a companion of his brother, and after specifying his inci- 
dental remark to Jesus at the feeding of the five thousand, and the 
circumstance of his being present at the prophecy of the temple's 
destruction, the New Testament history takes not the slightest 
notice of any action of Andrew's life ; nor is he even mentioned 
in the Acts of the Apostles, except in the mere list of their names 
in the first chapter. For any thing further, reference must be 
made to such dark and dubious historical materials as the tradi- 
tions of the Fathers afford. 



ANDREW. 291 

HIS TRADITIONARY HISTORY. 

The most rational conjecture about the subsequent movements 
of Andrew, would be that he removed along with Peter to the 
east, before the destruction of Jerusalem. With this allowable 
supposition, and also with the general voice of ancient accounts 
respecting the great majority of the Galilean apostles, the earliest 
and best authorized tradition respecting Andrew agrees perfectly. 
The earliest account of him is quoted from one of the most trust- 
worthy and judicious of the Fathers ; still, dating as late as the third 
century, and mixed as it is with known fabulous matter, it would 
be entitled to little respect except from its striking correspondence 
with the general facts alluded to. This early statement is, that 
" at the time when Palestine was disturbed by the seditions of the 
Jews against the Romans, the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, 
scattering throughout the world, preached the gospel." All these 
facts are referred to ancient tradition ; and among the rest, on this 
authority, Andrew is mentioned as having received Scythia as 
his field of duty. The country thus named, lay on the farthest 
eastern border of the ancient Parthian and Persian empire, in the 
northern part of the great valley of the Indus, now occupied by 
the eastern part of Affghanistan or Cabul, and by the provinces of 
Cashmere and Lahore. This was the true Scythia of the ancients ; 
it was this region where the great Persian Cyrus lost his life, and 
where the conquering Alexander met his most determined and 
dangerous foes ; and all the most ancient accounts in the same 
decisive manner refer to this as the country properly and origi- 
nally called Scythia, though many who have assumed the task 
of settling ancient geography have absurdly applied the name to 
the ancient Sarmatia, corresponding to the modern Russia, east of 
the Caspian and Volga. The name Scythia was, by the later 
Greek and Roman geographers, extended to the vast regions north 
of Persia and India, and east of the Ural mountains and the Cas- 
pian sea, stretching over the range of Imaus to an unknown dis- 
tance north and east, occupying all Little Tartary, southwestern 
Siberia, and western Chinese Tartary. A later account of Andrew 
further particularizes the regions to which he went, as Sogdiana, 
now Bokhara, and the country of the Sacae, in little Tibet ; — a 
statement which, coinciding nearly as it does with the earlier ac- 
counts, deserves some credit. 

The earliest mention made of the apostle Andrew, by any writer whatever, after 
the evangelists, is by Origen, (about A. D. 230 or 240,) who speaks of him as having 
39 



292 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

been sent to the Scythians. (Com. in Genes. 1. 3.) The passage is preserved only 
in Eusebius, (H. E. III. 1,) who barely quotes the circumstance from Origen, (A. D. 
315.) Jerome (Script. Ecc.) quotes Sophronius, as saying that Andrew went also to 
the Sogdians and Sacans. (A. D. 397.) 

Of all these traditions it may be said, that they are probable ; 
for if Andrew accompanied Peter to Babylon, the vast fields in- 
viting apostolic labor eastward would naturally attract his atten- 
tion, and claim the exertions of his remaining life. Of his suc- 
cess among them, nothing is known but the negative fact, that ages 
afterwards, when they were more fully brought under the know- 
ledge of the civilized world, they were heathens, without a dis- 
tinguishable trace of any better faith. 

HIS FABULOUS HISTORY. 

But such a simple conclusion to this apostle's life would by no 
means answer the purposes of the ancient writers on these mat- 
ters ; and accordingly the inquirer into apostolic history is presented 
with a long, long talk of Andrew's journey into Europe, through 
Greece and Thrace, where he is said to have founded many 
churches, undergone many labors, and performed many miracles, 
— and at last to have been crucified in a city of Greece. The 
brief, but decided condemnation of all this imposition, however, is 
found in its absolute destitution of proof, or of truly ancient au- 
thority. Not the most antique particular of this tedious falsehood 
can be traced back to a date within three hundred and fifty years 
of the time of the pretended journey ; and the whole story, from 
beginning to end, was undoubtedly made up to answer the de- 
mands of a credulous age, when, after the triumphant diffusion of 
Christianity throughout the Roman empire, curiosity began to be 
greatly awakened about the founders of the faith, — a curiosity too 
deep to be satisfied with the meagre statements of the records of 
truth. Moreover, every province of Christendom, following the 
example of the metropolis, soon began to claim some one of the 
apostolic band, as having first preached the gospel in its territories ; 
and to substantiate these claims, it was necessary to produce a 
record, corresponding to the legend which at first floated about 
only in the mouths of the inventors and propagators. Accord- 
ingly, apocryphal gospels and histories were manufactured in vast 
numbers, to meet this new demand, detailing long series of apos- 
tolic labors and journeys, and commemorating martyrdoms in every 
civilized country under heaven, from Britain to India. Among 
these, the Grecian provinces must needs come in for their share of 



ANDREW. 293 

apostolic honor; and Andrew was therefore given up to them, as 
a founder and martyr. The numerous particulars of fictitious 
miracles and persecutions might be amusing, but cannot deserve 
a place in this work, to the exclusion of serious matters of fact. 
A cursory view of the fables, however, may be allowed, even by 
these contracted limits. 

A blunder of the fable-mongers, which creates great perplexity in the 
inquiry for true apostolic history, is the supposition that the Scythia to 
which Andrew went was in Europe, north of Macedonia and Thrace. 
There was indeed a narrow tract on the western shore of the Euxine, set- 
tled by a Scythian colony, and thence bearing this name; but all the an- 
cient accounts show that this could not have been meant as the actual scene 
of Andrew's labors. However, this blunder seems to have given the hint 
for claiming that Andrew visited Greece and the countries north, Thrace 
and Epirus ; and the monkish writers have made out their story accord- 
ingly. His route is said to have been through Greece, Epirus, and then 
directly northwest into Scythia. Another later writer, however, makes a 
different track for him, leading from Palestine into Asia Minor, through 
Cappadocia, Galatia, and Bithynia ; — thence north through the country of 
the cannibals and to the wild wastes of Scythia ; — thence south along the 
northern, western, and southern shores of the Black sea, to Byzantium, 
(now Constantinople,) and after some time, through Thrace, southwestwards 
into Macedonia, Thessaly, and Achaia, in which last, his life and labors are 
said to have ended. By the same author, he is also in another passage 
said to have been driven from Byzantium by threats of persecution from 
Zeuzippus, king of Thrace, and therefore to have crossed over the Black 
sea to the city of Argyropolis, on its southern coast, where he preached 
two years, and constituted Stachys bishop of a church which he there 
founded ; and thence to Sinope, in Paphlagonia. 

Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. 25) is the first who says that Andrew went to Greece. 
He flourished in A. D. 370, which is 140 years later than Origen, against whom his 
testimony is therefore worth nothing. Chrysostom (Homil. in xii. apost.) mentions 
the same story. Sophronius is also quoted by Jerome as adding something of this 
sort to the statements above given. Augustin (defid. contra Manich.) is the first who 
brings in very much from tradition respecting Andrew ; and his stories are so nume- 
rous and entertaining in their particulars, as to show that, before his time, fiction had 
been most busily at work with the apostles ;— but the details are all of such a char- 
acter as not to deserve the slightest credit. The era of his writings, moreover, is so 
late, (A. D. 395,) that he, along with his contemporaries, Sophronius and Chrysostom, 
may be condemned as receivers of late traditions, and corrupters of the purity of his- 
torical as well as sacred truth. 

This story is from Nicephorus Callistus, a monk of the early part of the fourteenth 
century. (For an account of him and his writings, see Lardner, Cred. Gos. Hist, 
chap. i65.) He wrote an ecclesiastical history of the period from the birth of Christ 
to the year 610, in which he has given a vast number of utterly fabulous stories, 
adopting all the fictions of earlier historians, and adding, as it would seem, some new 
ones. His ignorance and folly are so great, however, that he is not considered as 
any authority, even by the Papist writers ; for on this very story of Andrew, even 
the credulous Baronius says — " Sed fide nutant haec, ob apertum mendacium de Zeu- 
zippo tyranno," &c. " These things are unworthy of credit, on account of the mani- 
fest lie about king Zeuzippus, because there was no king in Thrace at that time, the 
province being quietly ruled by a Roman president." (Baron. Ann. 44. § 31.) The 
story itself is in Niceph. Hist. Ecc. II. 39. 

So confused are these various accounts, that in consequence of the numerous geo- 



294 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

graphical errors of the modern narrators, I did not in the first edition sufficiently 
discriminate between the simple, unobjectionable statement of Origen, and the nume- 
rous fables appended to it by the later Fathers. The simple ascertaining of the true 
Scythia of the most ancient writers threw much light upon the difficulty, and show- 
ing the means of distinguishing ancient truth from modern falsehood, made it mani- 
fest at once that the story of Andrew's mission to Scythia, so far from being impro- 
bable, or inconsistent with what is known of the other apostles, was rendered in the 
highest degree reasonable and plausible, by the proximity of the true Scythia of the 
east to that empire in which Peter and the other Galileans are known to have lived 
after the removal from Palestine. (See Butler's Atlas of Ancient Geography, 
Map xiv.) 

But the later writers go beyond these unsatisfactory generalities, and 
enter into the most entertaining particulars, making out very interesting 
and romantic stories. The monkish apostolical novelists of the fifth cen- 
tury and later, have given a great number of stories about Andrew, incon- 
sistent with the earlier accounts, with each other, and with common sense. 
Indeed there is no great reason to think that they were meant to be be- 
lieved, but written very honestly as fictitious compositions, to gratify the 
taste of the antique novel readers. There is, therefore, really, no more ob- 
ligation resting on the biographer of the apostles to copy these fables, than 
on the historian of Scotland to transcribe the details of the romances of 
Scott, Porter, and others, though a mere allusion to them might occa- 
sionally be proper. The most serious and the least absurd of these fictions, 
is one which narrates that, after having received the grace of the Holy 
Spirit, by the gift of fiery tongues, he was sent to the Gentiles with an al- 
lotted field of duty. This was to go through Asia Minor, more especially 
the northern parts, Cappadocia, GaJatia, and Bithynia. Having traversed 
these and other countries as above stated, he settled in Achaia, where, as in 
the other provinces, during a stay of many years, he preached divine dis- 
courses, and glorified the name of Christ by wonderful signs and prodigies. 
At length he was seized at Patras, in the northwestern part of Achaia, on the 
gulf of Lepanto, by Aegeas, the Roman proconsul of that province, and 
by him crucified, on the charge of having converted to Christianity, Maxi- 
milla, the wife, and Stratocles, the brother of the proconsul, so that they 
had learned to abhor that ruler's wickedness. 

The fabulous life of Andrew, full of most amusingly absurd tales, is found among 
the " apostolical stories" of a monk of the middle ages, who passed them off as true 
histories, written by Abdias, said to have been one of the seventy disciples sent out 
by Jesus, (Luke x. 1,) and to have been afterwards ordained bishop of Babylon, (by 
Simon Zelotes and Jude.) It is an imposition so palpable, however, in its absurdities, 
that it has always been condemned by the best authorities, both Protestant and Papist : 
as, Melancthon, Bellarmin, Scultetus, Rivetus, the Magdeburg centuriators, Baro- 
nius, Chemnitius, Tillemont, Vossius, and Bayle, whose opinions and censures are 
most of them given in the preface to the work itself, by Joh. Al. Fabricius, (Cod. 
apocr. N. T., part 2.) 

The story of Andrew is altogether the longest and best constructed, as well as the 
most interesting in the character of its incidents, of all contained in the book of the 
Pseudo- Abdias ; and I have therefore, in the first edition, made large extracts from 
them, by way of specimen of this class of fables ; but in the progress of the work it 
appeared that much valuable historical matter must be excluded in consequence of 
the space which had been filled by this trash ; and this fabulous matter has therefore 
been much curtailed in the stereotype edition. 

Besides these fictions on Andrew's life, there are others, quoted as having been 
written in the same department. " The Passion of St. Andrew," a quite late apocry- 
phal story, professing to have been written by the elders and deacons of the churches 
of Achaia, was long extensively received by the Papists, as an authentic and valuable 



ANDREW. 295 

book, and is quoted by the eloquent and venerable Bernardus, with the most profound 
respect. It abounds in long, tedious speeches, as well as painfully absurd incidents. 
The " Menaei," or Greek calendar of the saints, is also copious on this apostle, but is 
too modern to deserve any credit whatever. All the ancient fables and traditions 
were at last collected into a huge volume, by a Frenchman named Andrew de Saus- 
say, who, in 1656, published at Paris, (in Latin,) a book, entitled " Andrew, brother 
of Simon Peter, or, Twelve Books on the Glory of Saint Andrew, the Apostle." 
This book was afterwards abridged, or largely borrowed from, by John Florian 
Hammerschmid, in a treatise, (in Latin,) published at Prague, in 1699, entitled, — 
" Cruciger Apostolicus," &c. — " The Apostolic Cross-bearer, or, St. Andrew, the 
Apostle, described and set forth, in his life, death, martyrdom, miracles, and dis- 
courses." — Baillet's Lives of the Saints, (in French,) also contains a full account of the 
most remarkable details of these fables. (Baillet. Vies de Saints, Vol. III. Nov. 30.) 

All these stories may, very possibly, have grown up from a beginning which was 
true ; that is, there may have been another Andrew, who. in a later age of the early 
times of Christianity, may have gone over those regions as a missionary, and met 
with somewhat similar adventures ; and who was afterwards confounded with the 
apostle Andrew. The Scotch, for some reason or other, formerly adopted Andrew 
as their national saint, and represent him on a cross of a peculiar shape, resembling 
the letter X, known in heraldry by the name of a saltier, and borne on the collar and 
jewel of the Scottish order of the Thistle, to this day. This idea of his cross, how- 
ever, has originated since the beginning of the twelfth century, as I shall show by a 
passage from Bernard. 

The truly holy Bernard, (Abbot of Clairvaux, in France, A. D. 1112,) better wor- 
thy of the title of Saint than ninety-nine hundredths of all the canonized who lived 
before him, even from apostolic days, — has, among his splendid sermons, three most 
eloquent discourses, preached in his abbey church, on St. Andrew's day, in which 
he alludes to the actions of this apostle, as recorded in the " Passion of St. Andrew," — 
a book which he seems to quote as worthy of credit. In Latin of Ciceronian purity, 
he has given some noble specimens of "a pulpit eloquence, rarely equaled in any 
modern language, and such as seldom blesses the ears of the hearers of these days. 
All the passages here quoted may be found by those who can enjoy the original, in 
his works. (Divi Bernardi Opera Omnia. Ed. Joh. Picard. Antwerp, 1609, folio ; 
columns 322 — 333.) He begins his first discourse on this subject with saying, that in 
" celebrating the glorious triumphs of the blessed Andrew, they had that day been 
delighted with the words of grace, that proceeded out of his mouth ;" — (doubtless in 
hearing the story of the crucifixion read from the fictitious book of the Passion of St. 
Andrew, which all supposed to be authentic.) " For there was no room for sorrow, 
where he himself was so intensely rejoiced. No one of us mourned for him in his 
sufferings; for no one dared to weep over him, while he was thus exulting. So that 
he might most appropriately say to us, what the cross-bearing Redeemer said to those 
who followed him with mourning, — - Weep not for me ; but weep for yourselves.' 
And when the blessed Andrew himself was led to the cross, and the people, grieving 
for the unjust condemnation of the holy and just man, would have prevented his exe- 
cution, — he, with the most urgent prayer, forbade them from depriving him of his 
crown of suffering. For ' he desired indeed to be released, and to be with Christ,' — but 
on the cross ; he desired to enter the kingdom, — but by the door. Even as he said to 
that loved form, ' that by thee He may receive me, who by thee has redeemed me.' 
Therefore if we love him, we shall rejoice with him ; not only because he was 
crowned, but because he was crucified." (A bad and unscriptural doctrine ! for no 
apostle ever taught, or was taught, that it was worth while for any man to be crucifi- 
ed, when he could well help it.) 

In his second sermon on the same subject, the animated Bernard remarks further- 
more, in comment on the behavior of Andrew, when coming in sight of his cross, — 
" You have certainly heard how the blessed Andrew was stayed on the Lord, when 
he came to the place where the cross was made ready for him,— and how, by the spirit 
which he had received along with the other apostles, in the fiery tongues, he spoke 
truly fiery words. And so, seeing from afar the cross prepared, he did not turn pale, 
though mortal weakness might seem to demand it ; his blood did not freeze, — his hair 
did not rise,— his voice did not cleave to his throat, (non stetere comae, ant vox favci- 
bus haesit.) Out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth did speak; and the deep 
love which glowed in his heart, sent forth the words like burning sparks. For what 
did the blessed Andrew say, when he saw from a distance the cross prepared for 
him 1— ' O cross ! long desired ! and prepared for a willing soul. Confident and 



296 



LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



rejoicing I come to thee ; and so do thou also with exultation bear me the disciple of 
him who hung on thee; because I have always been thy lover, and have desired to 
embrace thee.' I beseech you, brethren, say, is this a man who speaks thus 1 Is it 
not an angel, or some new creature *? No : it is merely ' a man of like passions with 
ourselves.' For the very agony itself, in whose approach he thus rejoiced, proves 
him to have been ' a man of passion.' Whence, then, in man, this new exultation, and 
joy before unheard of 7 Whence, in man, a mind so spiritual, — a love so fervent, — 
a courage so strong 1 Far would it be from the apostle himself, to wish that we 
should give the glory of such gra'ce to him. It is the ' perfect gift, coming down from 
the Father of Lights,' — from him, ' who alone does wondrous things.' It was, dearly 
beloved, plainly, ' the spirit which helpeth our infirmities,' by which was shed abroad 
in his heart, a love, strong as death, — yea, and stronger than death. Of which, O, 
may we too be found partakers 1" 

The preacher then goes on with the practical application of the view of these suf- 
ferings, and the spirit that sustained them, to the circumstances of his hearers. After 
some discourse to this effect, he exhorts them to seek this spirit. " Seek it, then, 
dearest ! seek it without ceasing, — seek it without doubting ; — in all your works in- 
voke the aid of this spirit. For we also, my brethren, with the blessed Andrew, must 
needs take up our cross, — yea, with that Savior-Lord whom he followed. For, in 
this he rejoiced, — in this he exulted ;— because not only for him, but with him, he 
would seem to die, and be planted, so ' that suffering with him, he might also reign 
with him.' With whom, that we may also be crucified, let us hear more attentively 
with the ears of our hearts, the voice of him who says, ' He who will come after 
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.' As if he said, ' Let 
him who desires me, despise himself; let him who would do my will, learn to break 
his own.' " 

Bernard then draws a minute parallel, more curious than admirable, between the 
cross and the trials of life, — likening the four difficulties in the way of holiness, to 
the four ends of the cross ; bodily fear being the foot-piece ; open assaults and temp- 
tations, the right arm-piece ; secret sins and trials, the left hand-piece ; and spiritual 
pride, the head-piece. Or, as he briefly recapitulates, the four virtues attached to the 
four horns of the cross, are these : — continence, patience, prudence, and humility. A 
truly forcible figure, and one not without its effect, doubtless, on the hearers. ' This 
arrangement of the cross, moreover, seems to prove, that in the time of Bernard, the 
idle story about Andrew's cross being'shaped like the letter X, w r as entirely unknown, 
for it is evident that the whole point of the allusion here consists in the hearers sup- 
posing that Andrew was crucified on a cross of the common shape, — upright, with a 
transverse bar and head-piece. Natalis Alexander also (Historia Ecclesiastica. 
Saecul. I. cap. i. § 3, p. 29) affords additional evidence of the modern character of 
this idle invention. He says — " Crux quae martyrii ejus instrumentum fuit, in Coe- 
nobio Massiliensi S. Victoris dicitur asservari, ejusdem figurae cum Dominica 
cruce." — " The cross which was the instrument of Andrew's martyrdom, is said to 
be preserved in the convent of St. Victor, at Marseilles, and to be of the same shape 
with the cross of the Lord." This is also indeed an idle tale ; but it serves to show 
that the notion of Andrew's cross being a saltier, is quite modern. 

In conclusion of all this fabulous detail, may be appropriately quoted the closing 
passage of the second discourse of Bernard, the spirit of which, though coming from 
a Papist, is not discordant with the noblest essential principles of truly catholic Chris- 
tianity, seldom, indeed, found so pure in the Romish church, as in this " Last of the 
Fathers," as he has been justly styled. And so accordant are these words with the 
spirit which it becomes this work to inculcate, that I may well adopt them into the text, 
glad to hang a moral to the end of so much falsehood, though drawn from such a 
theme, that it seems like " gathering grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." 

Bernard has in this part of his discourse been completing all the details of his 
parallel between the cross and the Christian's life, and in this conclusion, thus crowns 
the simile, by exhorting his saintly hearers to cling, each to his own cross, in spite of 
all temptation to renounce it ; that is, to persevere in daily crucifying their sins, by 
a pure deportment through life. 

" Happy the soul that glories and triumphs on this cross, if it only persevere, and 
do not let itself be cast down in its trials. Let every one then, who is on this cross, 
like the blessed Andrew, pray his Lord and Master not to let him be taken down 
from it. For what is there which the malign adversary will not dare 1 what will he 
not impiously presume to try 7 For what he thought to do to the disciple by the hands 
of Aegeas, the same he once thought to do to the Master by the scornful tongues of 



ANDREW. 297 

the Jews. In each instance alike, however, driven by too late experience of his 
folly, he departed, vanquished and confounded. O may he in like manner depart 
from us, conquered by Him who triumphed over him by Himself, and by His dis- 
ciple. May He cause, that we also may attain the same happy end, on the crosses 
which we have borne, each one in his own peculiar trials, for the glory of His name 
' who is God over all, blessed for ever.' " 



JAMES BOANERGES; 

THE SON OF ZEBEDEE. 



HIS RANK AND CHARACTER. 



Whatever may have been the peculiar excellences of this 
apostle's character, as recognized by the searching eye of Him who 
knew the hearts of all men, the early close of his high career has 
prevented the full development of energies, that might, in the 
course of a longer life, have been made as fruitful in works of 
wonder and praise, as those of the other members of the elect 
trio, his friend and his younger brother ; and his later years, thus 
prolonged, might have left similar recorded testimonies of his apos- 
tolic zeal. Much, too, that truly concerns his brief life, is swal- 
lowed up in the long narrative of the eminent chief of the twelve, 
whose superiority was on all occasions so distinctly marked by 
Jesus, that he never imparted to this apostle any exalted favor in 
which Peter did not also share, and in the record of which his 
name is not mentioned first. In the first call, — in the raising of 
the daughter of Jairus to life, — at the transfiguration, — and on the 
apostolic roll, — James is uniformly placed after Peter ; and such, 
too, was the superior activity and talkative disposition of Peter, 
that whenever and wherever there was any thing to be said, he 
was always the first to say it, — cutting off the sons of Zebedee 
from the opportunity, if they had the disposition, to make them- 
selves more prominent. Yet the sons of Zebedee are not entirely 
unnoticed in the apostolic history, and even the early-martyred 
James may be said to have a character quite decidedly marked, in 
those few passages in the sacred record, where facts concerning 
him are commemorated. In the apostolic list given by Mark, it is 
moreover mentioned, that he with his brother had received a name 
from Jesus Christ, which being given to them by him, doubtless 
with a decided reference to their characters, serves as a valuable 
means of ascertaining their leading traits. The name of " Boan- 
erges," — " sons of thunder," seems to imply a degree of decided 
boldness and a fiery energy, not exactly accordant with the usual 



JAMES BOANERGES. 299 

opinions of the characters of the sons of Zebedee ; but it is an 
expression in the most perfect harmony with the few details of the 
conduct of both, which are given in the New Testament. 

Boanerges. — This word is one whose composition and derivation (as is the case 
with many other New Testament proper names) have caused great discussion and 
difference of opinion among the learned. It occurs only in Mark iii. 17, where it 
is incidentally mentioned in the list of the apostles, as a new name given to the sons 
of Zebedee by Jesus. Those who are curious, can find all the discussion in any cri- 
tical commentator on the passage. Poole's Synopsis, in one heavy folio column and 
half of another, gives a complete view of all the facts and speculations concerning 
this matter, up to his time ; the amount of all which, seems to be, that, as the word 
now stands, it very nearly sets all etymologies at defiance, — whether Hebrew, Sy- 
riac, Chaldee, or Arabic, — since it is impossible to say how the word should be re- 
solved into two parts, one of which should mean " sons," and the other " thunder;" 
so that it is well for us we have Mark's explanation of the name, since without it, 
the critics would probably have never found either " son" or " thunder" in the word. 
As to the reason of the names being appropriated to James and John, conjectures 
equally numerous and various maybe found in the same learned work; but all 
equally unsatisfactory. Lampe also is very full on this point. (Prol. in Jon. cap. I. 
lib. ii. §§ 9—15.) 

HIS FAMILY AND CALL. 

Of the first introduction of this apostle to Jesus, it may be rea- 
sonably conjectured, that he formed an acquaintance with him at 
the same time with his brother John and the sons of Jonah, as 
already commemorated in their former lives, from the brief record 
in the first chapter of John's gospel. After this, he and his brother, 
as well as Peter and Andrew, returned quietly to their honest bu- 
siness of fishing on the lake of Gennesaret, on whose shore, no 
doubt, was their home, — perhaps, too, in Bethsaida or Capernaum, 
as their intimacy and fellowship with the sons of Jonah would 
seem to imply a vicinity of residence ; though their common occu- 
pation might bring them frequently together in circumstances 
where friendly assistance was mutually needed ; and the idea of 
their residence in some other of the numerous villages along the 
northern end of the lake, on either . side, is not inconsistent with 
any circumstance specified in their history. In their occupation 
of fishing, they were accompanied by their father Zebedee, who, 
it seems, was not so far advanced in years as to be unable to aid 
his sons in this very laborious and dangerous business ; which 
makes it quite apparent that James and John being the sons of so 
active a man, must themselves have but just attained manhood, at 
the time when they are first mentioned. Respecting the charac- 
ter of this active old gentleman, unfortunately very few data in- 
deed are preserved ; and the vagueness of the impression made by 
his name, though so often repeated in connexion with his sons, 
may be best conceived by reference to that deeply enigmatical 

40 



300 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

question, with which grave persons of mature age are sometimes 
wont to puzzle the inquisitive minds of young aspirants after Bibli- 
cal knowledge, — " Who was the father of Zebedee's children ?" — a 
query which certainly implies a great deficiency of important facts, 
on which the curious learner could found a definite idea of this 
somewhat distinguished character. Indeed " the mother of Zebe- 
dee's children" seems to possess in the minds of most readers of 
the gospels a much more prominent place than " the father of 
them ;" for the simple occasion on which she presents herself to 
notice, is of such a nature as to show that she was the parent 
from whom the sons inherited at least one prominent trait, — that 
of high, aspiring ambition, with which, in them as well as in her, 
was joined a most decidedly comfortable degree of self-esteem, that 
would not allow them to suspect that other people could be at all 
behind them in appreciating those talents, which, in their own 
opinion, and their fond mother's, showed that they " were born to 
command." Indeed it appears manifest, that there was much 
more " thunder" in her composition, than in her husband's ; and it 
is but fair to suppose, from the decided way in which she put her- 
self forward in the family affairs, on at least one important occa- 
sion, without any pretension whatever on his part, to any right of 
interference or decision, that she must have been in the habit of 
having her own way in most matters ; — a peculiar prominence in 
the domestic administration, very naturally resulting from the cir- 
cumstance, that her husband's frequent, long absences from home, 
on his business, must have left the responsibilities of the family 
often upon her alone, and he, like a prudent man, on his return, 
may have valued domestic quiet above the maintenance of any 
very decided supremacy. If the supposition may be adopted, 
however, that Zebedee died soon after the call of his sons, the 
silence of the sacred record respecting him is easily accounted for, 
and the above conclusion as to his domestic management, may be 
considered unnecessarily derogatory to his dignity of character. 

Sprung from such parents, and brought up by them on the 
shores and waters of Gennesaret, James had learned the humble 
business of his father, and was quietly devoting himself to the 
labors of a fisherman, probably never dreaming of an occasion that 
should ever call forth the slumbering energies in " thunder," or 
hold up before his awakened ambition, the honors of a name that 
should outlast the wreck of kingdoms, and of the brightest glories 
of that age. But on the morning, when the sons of Jonah re- 



JAMES BOANERGES. 301 

ceived the high call and commission to become " fishers of men," 
James and his brother, too, — at the solemn command, " Follow 
me," — laid down their nets, and left the low labors and amuse- 
ments of the fishing, to their father, who toiled on with his ser- 
vants, while his sons went forth through Galilee, following him 
who had called them to a far higher vocation. No acts whatever 
are commemorated, as performed by them in this first pilgrimage ; 
and it was not until after their return from the north of Galilee, 
and the beginning of their journey to Jerusalem, that the occasion 
arose, when their striking family trait of ambition was most re- 
markably brought out. 

HIS AMBITIOUS CLAIMS. 

Their intellectual and moral qualities being of a comparatively 
high order, had already attracted the very favorable attention of 
Jesus, during the first journey through Galilee ; and they had al- 
ready, on at least two occasions, received most distinguishing 
marks of his regard, — they alone of all the twelve, sharing in the 
honor of being present with Peter at the raising of the daughter 
of Jairus, and being still more highly favored by the view of the 
solemn events of the night of the transfiguration, amid the thunders 
of Hermon. On that occasion, the terrors of the scene overcame 
even their aspiring souls ; and when the cloud burst over them, 
they both sunk to the earth, in speechless dread, along with Peter, 
too, who had previously manifested so much greater self-command 
than they, in daring to address, in complacent words, the awful 
forms before them ; while they remained silent with terror at a 
phenomenon for which their views of their Master's character had 
but poorly prepared them. From all these prostrating terrors they 
had since, however, fully recovered, and were now completely re- 
stored to their former confidence in themselves, and were still 
rooted in their old views of the Messiah's earthly glories, — in this 
particular, however, only sharing the common error of the whole 
twelve. In this state of mind, looking upon Jesus Christ only as 
an ambitious man, of powerful mind, vast knowledge, divine con- 
secration, and miraculous gifts, which fitted him for the subversion 
of the Roman dominion, and the erection of a kingdom of his 
own, — their thoughts were all the while running on the division 
of the spoils and honors, which would be the reward of the chief 
followers of the conqueror ; and in this state of mind, they were 
prepared to pervert all the declarations of Jesus, so as to make 



302 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

them harmonize with their own hopes and notions. While on this 
journey southward, to Jerusalem, after they had passed into the 
eastern sections of Judea, beyond the Jordan, Jesus was one day, 
in answer to an inquiry from Peter, promising his disciples a high 
reward for the sacrifices they had made in his service ; and as- 
suring them, that in return for houses or lands, or relatives or 
friends, left for his name's sake, they should all receive a return, a 
hundred-fold greater than the loss. Especially were their fancies 
struck by a vivid picture, which he represented to their minds, of 
the high rewards accruing to all the twelve, declaring that after 
the completion of the change which he was working, and when he 
had taken his own imperial throne, they should sit around him on 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Here was a 
prospect, enough to satisfy the most aspiring ambition ; but along 
with the hopes now awakened, arose also some queries about the 
preference of places in this throned triumph, which were not easily 
settled so as to satisfy all at once. In the proposed arrangement, 
it was perfectly evident, that of the whole circle of thrones, by far 
the most honorable locations would be those immediately on the 
right and left of the Messiah-king ; and their low ambition set them 
at once contriving how to get these pre-eminent places for them- 
selves. Of all the apostolic band, none could so fairly claim tHe 
right hand throne as Peter ; already pronounced the Rock on 
which the church should be founded, and commissioned as the 
keeper of the keys of the kingdom. But Peter's devotion to his 
Master seems to have been of too pure a character, to let him give 
any thought to the mere rewards of the victory, so long as he could 
feel sure of the full return of that burning affection to his Lord, 
with which his own ardent soul glowed ; and he left it to others 
to settle points of precedence and the division of rewards. On no 
occasion throughout his whole life, is there recorded any evidence 
of the slightest disposition to claim the mere honors of a pre- 
eminence, though his superior force of character made the whole 
band instinctively look to him for guidance, in all times of trouble 
and danger, after the ascension. His modest, confiding, disinter- 
ested affection for his Master, indeed, was the main ground of all 
the high distinctions conferred on him so unsparingly by Jesus, 
who would have been very slow to honor thus, one who was dis- 
posed to grow proud or overbearing under the possession of these 
favors. But this very character of modesty and uncalculating af- 
fection, gave occasion also to the other disciples, to push themselves 



JAMES BOANERGES. 303 

forward for a claim to those peculiar exaltations, which his indif- 
ference to personal advancement seemed to leave unoccupied, for 
the more ambitious to assume. In this instance, particularly, 
James and John were so far moved with the desire of the enviable 
distinction of this primacy, that they made it a matter of family 
consultation, and accordingly brought the case before their fondly 
ambitious mother, who instantly determined that the great object 
should be achieved before any one else could secure the chance 
for the place ; and resolved to use her influence in favor of her 
darling sons. On the first favorable opportunity she therefore 
went with them to Jesus ; and, as it would appear by the combina- 
tion of the accounts of Matthew and Mark, both she and they pre- 
sented the request at once and together, — James and John, however, 
prefacing the declaration of their exact purpose by a general peti- 
tion for unlimited favor, — " Master, we would that thou shouldst 
do for us whatever we desire ?" To this modest petition, Jesus 
replied by asking, — " What would ye that I should grant ?" They, 
with their mother, falling down at his feet in fawning, selfish wor- 
ship, then urged their grand request : — " Grant," said the ambitious 
Salome, "that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right 
hand, and the other on thy left, when thou reignest in thy glory." 
Jesus, fully appreciating the miserable state of selfish ignorance 
which inspired the hope and the question, in order to show them 
their ignorance, and to make them express their minds more fully, 
assured them that they knew not the meaning of their own request, 
and asked them whether they were able to drink of the cup that 
he should drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that he should 
be baptized with ? With unhesitating self-conceit, they answered, — 
" We are able." But Jesus replied in such a tone as to check all 
further solicitation of this kind from them, or from any other ot 
his hearers. " Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized 
with the baptism that I am baptized with ; but to sit on my right 
hand and on my left, is not mine to give ; but it shall be given to 
them for whom it is prepared by my father." — " The cup of sor- 
row, and suffering, and agony, — the baptism of spirit, fire, and 
blood, — of these you shall all drink in a solemn and mournful re- 
ality, which you are now far from conceiving ; but the high places 
of the kingdom which I come to found, are not to be disposed of 
to those who think to forestall my personal favor ; they are for the 
blessed of my Father, who, in the time appointed in his own good 
pleasure, will give it to them, in the end of days." The disap- 



304 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

pointed family of Zebedee retired, quite confounded with the rejec- 
tion of their petition, and with the darkly told prophecy that accom- 
panied it, dooming them to some mysterious fate, of which they 
could form no idea whatever. The rest of the twelve, hearing of 
the ambitious attempt of the sons of Zebedee to secure the suprema- 
cy by a secret movement and by family influence, were moved 
with great indignation against the intriguing aspirants, and ex- 
pressed their displeasure so decidedly, that Jesus called them 
around him, to improve this manifestation of folly and passion to 
their advantage ; and said, — " You know that the nations are gov- 
erned by princes and lords, and that none exercise authority over 
them but the great ones of the land. Now it shall not be so among 
you ; but he who will be great among you, must be your servant ; 
and he who shall be your chief, shall be the slave of all the rest. 
For even the Son of Man himself came not to make others his 
slaves, but to be himself a slave to many, and even to sacrifice his 
life in their service." 

Salome. — The reason for the supposition that this was really the name of the mother 
of James, consists in the comparison of two corresponding passages of Matthew and 
Mark. In Matt, xxvii. 56. it is said that among the women present at the crucifix- 
ion, were " Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of Joses, and the mother of Zebedee' s 
children." In the parallel passage, Mark xv. 40, they are mentioned as " Mary Mag- 
dalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joses, and Salome." In Mark xvi. 1, Salome 
is also mentioned among those who went to the sepulchre. This is not proof posi- 
tive, but it is reasonable ground for the supposition, more especially as Matthew 
never mentions Salome by name, but repeatedly speaks of " the mother of Zebedee's 
children." 

If, as is probable then, Salome and the mother of Zebedee's children were identical, 
it is also reasonable to suppose, as Lampe does, that Zebedee himself may have died 
soon after the time when the call of his sons took place. For Salome could hardly 
have left her husband and family, to go, as she did, with Jesus on his journeys, minis- 
tering to his necessities ; — but if her husband was really dead, she would have but few 
ties to confine her at home, and would therefore very naturally be led, by her mater- 
nal affection and anxiety for her sons, to accompany them in their wandering life. 
The supposition of Zebedee's death is also justified by the circumstance that John is 
spoken of in his own gospel, (John xix. 27,) as possessing a house of " his own" which 
seems to imply the death of his father ; since so young a man would hardly have ac- 
quired property, except by inheritance. 

Thus he laid out before them all the indispensable qualities of 
the man who aspired to the dangerous, painful, and unenviable 
primacy among them, — humility, meekness, and laborious indus- 
try. But vain were all the earnest teachings of his divine spirit. 
Schemes and hopes of worldly eminence and imperial dominion, 
were too deeply rooted in their hearts, to be displaced by this oft- 
repeated view of the labors and trials of his service. Already, on 
a former occasion, too, had he tried to impress them with the true 
spirit of the apostleship. When on the way to Capernaum, at the 
close of this journey through Galilee, they had disputed among 



JAMES BOANERGES. 305 

themselves on the question, which of them should be the prime 
minister of their Messiah-king, when he had established his heav- 
enly reign in all the dominions of his father David. On their 
meeting with him in the house at Capernaum, he brought up this 
point of difference. Setting a little child before them, (probably 
one of Peter's children, as it was in his house,) and taking the 
little innocent into his arms, he assured them that unless they 
should become utterly changed in disposition and in hope, and be- 
come like that little child in simplicity of character, they should 
have no share whatever in the glories of that kingdom which was 
to them an object of so many ambitious aspirations. But neither 
this charge, nor the repetition of it, could yet avail to work that 
necessary change in their feelings. Still they lived on in the vain 
and selfish hope, scheming for personal aggrandizement, till the 
progress of events bringing calamity and trial upon them, had 
purified their hearts, and fully fitted them for the duties of the great 
office to which they had so unthinkingly devoted themselves. 
Then, indeed, did the aspiring James receive, in a deeper sense 
than he had ever dreamed of, the reward for which he now longed 
and begged ; — drinking first of the cup of agony, and baptized first 
in blood, he ascended first to the place on the right hand of the 
Messiah in his eternal kingdom. But years of toil and sorrow, 
seen and felt, were his preparation for this glorious crown. 

James has also been made the subject of a long series of fables, though the early- 
termination of his apostolic career would seem to leave no room whatever, for the 
insertion of any very great journeys and labors upon the authentic history. But the 
Spaniards, in the general rage for claiming some apostle as a national patron saint, 
long ago got up the most absurd fiction, that James, the son of Zebedee, during the 
period intervening between Christ's ascension and his own execution at Jerusalem, 
actually performed a voyage over the whole length of the Mediterranean, into Spain, 
where he remained several years, preaching, founding churches, and. performing- 
miracles, and returned to Jerusalem in time for the occurrence of the concluding 
event, as recorded in the twelfth chapter of Acts. This story probably originated in 
the same manner as that suggested to account for the fables about Andrew ; that is — 
that some preacher of Christianity, of this name, in a later age, actually did travel 
into Spain, there preaching the gospel, and founding churches; and that his name 
being deservedly remembered, was, in the progress of the corruptions of the truth, 
confounded with that of the apostle James, son of Zebedee, — this James being se- 
lected rather than the son of Alpheus, because the latter had already been established 
by tradition, as the hero of a story quite inconsistent with any Spanish journey, and 
being also less dignified by the Savior's notice. Be that as it may, Saint James 
(Santo Jago) is to this day esteemed the patron saint of Spain, and his tomb is shown 
in Compostella, in that kingdom ; for they will have it, that, after his decapitation by 
Herod Agrippa, his body was brought all the way over the sea, to Spain, and there 
buried in the scene of his toils and miracles. A Spanish order of knighthood, that 
of St. Jago de Compostella, takes its name from this notion. 

The old romancer, Abdias Babyloniiis, who is so rich in stories about Andrew, has 
much to tell about James, and enters at great length into the details of his execution ; 
crowning the whole with the idle story, that when he was led to death, his accuser, 
Josiah, a Pharisee, suddenly repenting, begged his forgiveness, and professed his 



306 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

faith in Christ,— for which he also was beheaded along with him, after being baptized 
by James in some water that was handed to him by the executioner, in a calabash. 
(Abd. Babylon. Hist. Apost. IV. § 9.) 

From the time of this event, there occurs no mention whatever 
of any act of James, until the commemoration of the occasion of 
his exit ; and even this tragic circumstance is mentioned so briefly, 
that nothing can be learned but the mere fact and manner of his 
death. On the occasion fully described above, in the life of Peter, 
Herod Agrippa I. seized this apostle, and at once put him to death 
by the executioner's sword. The particular grounds on which 
this act of bloody cruelty was justified by the tyrant and his friends, 
are wholly unknown. Probably there was a pretense at a set ac- 
cusation of some crime, which would make the act appear less 
atrocious at the time, than appears from Luke's silence as to the 
grounds of the proceeding. The remarkable prominence of James, 
however, was enough to offer a motive to the popularity-seeking 
Agrippa, whose main object being to " please the Jews," led him 
to seize those who had most displeased them, by laboring for the 
advancement of the Nazarene heresy. And that this actually was 
his governing principle in selecting his victims, is made further 
apparent by the circumstance that Peter, the great chief of the 
band, was next marked for destruction. Though no particular 
acts of James are recorded as having made him prominently ob- 
noxious to the Jews, yet there is every reason to believe, that the 
exalted ardor and now chastened ambition of the Son of Thunder, 
had made him often the bold assaulter of sophistry and hypocrisy, 
— a heroism which at once sealed his doom, and crowned him 
with the glory of THE APOSTOLIC PROTOMARTYR. 



JOHN; 

THE SON OF ZEBEDEE. 



HIS CHARACTER. 

This other son of Zebedee, and of " thunder," whenever any 
description of the apostles has been given, has been by most reli- 
gious writers generally characterized as a mild, amiable person, and 
is thus figured in strong contrast with the bold and ardent spirit 
of Peter. The circumstance that he is described as " the disciple 
whom Jesus loved," has doubtless done much to cause the almost 
universal impression which has prevailed, as to the meekness of 
his disposition. But this is certainly without just reason ; for 
there is no ground for supposing that any peculiar softness was 
essential to the formation of the character for which the Redeemer 
could feel a strong affection. On the contrary, the almost univer- 
sal behavior of the apostolic band, seems to show that the natural 
characteristics which he marked as betraying in them the deeper 
qualities that would best fit them for his service, and qualify them 
as the sharers of his intimate instruction and affection, were more 
decidedly of the stern and fiery order, than of the meek and gentle. 
Nor is there any circumstance recorded of John, whether authentic 
or fabulous, that can justify the supposition that he was an excep- 
tion to these general, natural characteristics of the apostles ; but 
instances sufficiently numerous are given in the gospels, to make 
it clear, that he was not altogether the soft and gentle creature, 
that has been commonly presented as his true image. 

It has been commonly supposed that he was the youngest of all 
the apostles ; nor is there any reason to disbelieve an opinion har- 
monizing, as this does, with all that is recorded of him in the New 
Testament, as well as with the undivided voice of all tradition. 
That he was younger than James, may be reasonably concluded 
from the circumstance that he is always mentioned after him, 
though his importance in the history of the foundation of the 
Christian faith, might seem to justify an inversion of this order j 

and in the life of James, it has already been represented as proba- 
41 



308 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ble, that he too must have been quite young, being the son of a 
father who was still so much in the freshness of his vigor, as to 
endure the toils of a peculiarly laborious and dangerous business. 
On this point, also, the opinion even of tradition is entitled to 
some respect, on the ground taken by an author quoted in the 
life of Peter, — that though we consider tradition as a notorious 
liar, yet we may give some attention to its reports, because even 
a liar may sometimes speak the truth, where he has ho object in 
deceiving us. 

The youngest of the disciples.— AM that can be said on this opinion is, that it is pos- 
sible ; and if the testimony of the later Fathers were worth much consideration on 
any historical question concerning the apostles, it might be called even probable ; but 
no early writer alludes to his age at all, till Jerome, who very decidedly calls John 
" the youngest of all the apostles." Several later Fathers make the same assertion, 
but the voice of antiquity has already been shown to be worth very little, when it is 
not heard within three centuries of the events on which it offers its testimony. But 
at any rate, the assertion of John's juniority is not improbable. 

A great deal of violent discussion has been lavished on the almost equally impor- 
tant question, whether John was ever married. The earliest established testimony 
on this point is that of Tertullian, who numbers John among those who had restrained 
themselves from matrimony for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Testimony as 
late as the third century, however, and especially by an ascetic Montanist, as Ter- 
tullian was, on an opinion which favored monastic views, is worth nothing. But on 
the strength of this, many Fathers have made great use of John, as an instance of 
celibacy, accordant with monastic principles. Epiphanius, Jerome, and Augustin, 
allude frequently to the circumstance ; the latter Father in particular insisting that 
John was engaged to be married when he was called, but gave up the lady, to follow 
Jesus. Some ingenious modern theologians have even improved upon this so far as 
to maintain that the marriage in Cana of Galilee was that of John, but that he imme- 
diately left his wife after the miracle. (See Lampe, Prolegom. I. i. 13, notes.) 

Jerome has a great deal to say also, about the age of John at the time when he was 
called, arguing that he must have been a mere boy at the time, because tradition as- 
serts that he lived till the reign of Trajan. Lampe very justly objects, however, that 
this proof amounts to nothing, if we accept another common tradition, that he lived 
to the age of 100 years ; which, if we count back a century from the reign of Trajan, 
would require him to have attained mature age at the time of the call. Neither tra- 
dition, however, is worth much. Our old friend Baronius, too, comes in to enlighten 
the investigation of John's age, by what he considers indubitable evidence. He says 
that John was in his twenty-second year when he was called, and passing three years 
with Christ, must have been twenty-five years old at the time of the crucifixion; "be- 
cause" says the sagacious Baronius, " he was then initiated into the priesthood." An 
assertion which Lampe with indignant surprise stigmatizes as showing " remarkable 
boldness," (insignis audacia,) because it contains two very gross errors, — first, in pre- 
tending that John was ever made a priest, (sacerdos,) and secondl)' - , in confounding 
the age required of the Levites with that of the priests when initiated. For Baroni- 
us's argument resting wholly on the very strange and unfounded notion, that John 
was made a priest, is furthermore supported on the idea that the prescribed age for 
entering the priesthood was twenty-five years ; but in reality, the age thus required 
was thirty years, so that if the other part of this idle story was true, this would be 
enough to overthrow the conclusion. Lampe also alludes to the absurd idea of the 
painters, in representing John as a young man, even while writing his gospel ; while 
in reality all writers agree that that work was written by him in his old age. This 
idea of his perpetual youth, once led into a blunder some foolish Benedictine monks, 
who found in Constantinople an antique agate intaglio, representing a young man 
with a cornucopia, and an eagle, and with a figure of Victory placing a crown on his 
head. This struck their monkish fancies at once, as an unquestionable portrait of 
John, sent to their hands by a miraculous preservation. Examination, however, has 
shown it to be a representation of the apotheosis of Germanicus. 



JOHN. 309 

HIS FAMILY AND BUSINESS. 

The authentic history of the life of this apostle must also ne- 
cessarily be very brief; most of the prominent incidents which 
concern him having already been abundantly described in the 
preceding lives. But there are particulars which have not been 
so fully entered into, some of which concern this apostle exclu- 
sively, while in others he is mentioned only in conjunction with 
his brother and friends ; and many of these may, with propriety, 
be more fully given in this life, since his eminence, his writings, 
and long protracted labors, make him a proper subject for a minute 
disquisition. 

Being the son of Zebedee and Salome, as has already been men- 
tioned in the life of his brother, he shared in the low fortunes and 
laborious life of a fisherman, on the lake of Gennesaret. This oc- 
cupation, indeed, did not necessarily imply the very lowest rank 
in society, as is evident from the fact that the Jews held no useful 
occupation to be beneath the dignity of a respectable person, or 
even a learned man. Still, the nature of their business was such 
as to render it improbable that they had adopted it with any other 
view than that of maintaining themselves by it, or of enlarging 
their property, though perhaps not of earning a support which they 
had no other means whatever of procuring. It has been said, that 
doubtless there were many other inhabitants of the shores of the 
lake, who occasionally occupied themselves in fishing, and yet were 
by no means obliged to employ themselves constantly in that vo- 
cation. But the brief statement of circumstances in the gospels is 
enough to show that such an equipage of boats and nets, and such 
steady employment all night, were not indicative of any thing else 
than a regular devotion of time to it, in the way of business. 
Yet, that Zebedee was not a man in very low circumstances, as to 
property, is quite manifest from Mark's statement, that when they 
were called, they left their father in the vessel, along with the 
" servants," or workmen, — which implies that they carried on their 
fishing operations on so extended a scale as to have a number of 
men in their service, and probably had a vessel of considerable 
size, since it needed such a plurality of hands to manage it, and 
use the apparatus of the business to advantage ; a circumstance 
in which their condition seems to have been somewhat superior 
to that of Peter and Andrew, of whom no such particulars are 
specified, — all accounts representing them as alone, in a small ves- 



310 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

sel, which they were able to manage of themselves. The posses- 
sion of some family estate is also implied, in numerous incidental 
allusions in the gospels ; as in the fact that their mother Salome 
was one of those women who followed Jesus, and c * ministered to 
him of their substance" or possessions. She is also specified 
among those women who brought precious spices for embalming 
the body of Jesus. John is also mentioned in his own gospel, as 
having a house of his own, in which he generously supported the 
mother of Jesus, as if he himself had been her son, throughout the 
remainder of her life ; an act of friendly and pious kindness to 
which he would not have been competent, without the possession 
of some property in addition to the house. 

HIS EDUCATION. 

There is reason to suppose, that in accordance with the estab- 
lished principles of parental duty among the Jews, he had learned 
the rudiments of the knowledge of the Mosaic law ; for a prover- 
bial sentence of the religious teachers of the nation, ranked among 
the vilest of mankind, that Jew, who suffered a son to grow up 
without being educated in the first principles, at least, of his na- 
tional religion. But that his knowledge, at the time when he first 
became a disciple of Jesus, extended beyond a barely respectable 
degree of information on religious matters, there is no ground for 
believing ; and though there is nothing which directly contradicts 
the idea that he may have known the alphabet, or have made some 
trifling advances in literary knowledge, — yet the manner in which 
he, together with Peter, was spoken of by the proud members of 
the Sanhedrim, seems to imply that they did not pretend to any 
knowledge whatever of literature. And the terms in which both 
Jesus and his disciples are constantly alluded to by the learned 
scribes and Pharisees, seem to show that they were all considered 
as utterly destitute of literary education, though, by reason of that 
very ignorance, they were objects of the greatest wonder to all 
who saw their striking displays of a religious knowledge, utterly 
unaccountable by a reference to any thing that was known of their 
means of arriving at such intellectual eminence. Indeed, there 
seems to have been a distinct design on the part of Christ, to select 
for his great purpose, men whose minds were wholly free from that 
pride of opinion and learned arrogance, almost inseparable from 
the constitutions of those who had been regularly trained in the 
subtleties of a slavish system of theology and law. He did not 






JOHN. 311 

seek among the trained and drilled scholars of the formal routine 
of Jewish dogmatism, for the instruments of regenerating a people 
and a world, — but among the bold, active, and intelligent, yet un- 
educated Galileans, whose provincial peculiarities and rudeness, 
moreover, in a high degree incapacitated them from taking rank 
among the polished scholars of the Jewish capital. Thus was it, 
that on the followers of Christ could never be put the stigma of 
mere theological disputants ; and all the gifts of knowledge, and 
the graces of mental power, which they displayed under his divine 
teachings, were totally free from the slightest suspicion of any other 
than a miraculous origin. Some have, indeed, attempted to con- 
jecture, from the alleged elegance of John's style in his gospel and 
epistles, that he had early received a finished education, in some 
one of the provincial Jewish colleges, and have even gone so far 
as to suggest, that probably Jairus, " the ruler of the synagogue" 
in Capernaum, or more properly, " the head of the school of the 
law," had been his instructor, — a guess of most remarkable pro- 
fundity, but one that, besides lacking all sort of evidence or pro- 
bability, is furthermore made totally unnecessary, by the indu- 
bitable fact, that no signs of any such perfection of style are 
noticeable in any of the writings of John, so as to require any 
elaborate hypothesis of this kind to explain them. The greatest 
probability is, that all his knowledge, both of Hebrew literature 
and the Greek language, was acquired after the beginning of his 
apostolic course. 

HIS NAME. 

The Jews were accustomed, like most of the ancient nations of 
the east, to confer upon their children significant names, which 
were made to refer to some circumstance connected with the per- 
son's prospects, or the hopes of his parents respecting him. In 
their son's name, probably Zebedee and Salome designed to express 
some idea auspicious of his progress and character in after life. 
The name " John" is not only common in the New Testament, 
but also occurs in the Hebrew scriptures in the original form 
" Johanan," which bears the happy signification of " the favor of 
Jehovah," or "favored by Jehovah." They probably had this 
meaning in mind when they gave the name to him, and on that 
account preferred it to one of less hopeful religious character ; but 
to suppose, as some commentators have, that in conferring it, they 
were indued with a prophetic spirit, which for the moment directed 



312 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

them to the choice of an appellation expressive of the high destiny 
of a chosen, favored herald of the grace of God, to Israel and to 
the Gentiles, — is a conjecture too absurdly wild to be entertained 
by a sober and discreet critic for a moment. Yet there are some, 
who, in the rage for rinding a deep meaning in the simplest mat- 
ters, interpret this simple, common name, as prophetically express- 
ive of the beginning of the reign of grace, and of the abrogation 
of the formal law of Moses, first announced by John the Baptist, 
whose testimony was first fully recorded in the gospel of John the 
Apostle. Such idle speculations, however, serve no useful purpose, 
and only bring suspicion upon more rational investigations in the 
same department. 

HIS CALL AND DISCIPLESHIP. 

The first introduction of John to Jesus, appears to be distinctly, 
though modestly, described by himself, in the first chapter of his 
gospel, where he has evidently designated himself in the third 
person, as " the other disciple" of John the Baptist, who accom- 
panied Andrew on his first visit to Jesus. After the introduction 
above narrated, he seems to have remained near the newly found 
Messiah for some days, being, of course, included among those 
disciples who were present at the marriage in Cana. He appears to 
have returned, soon after, to his employments on the lake, where 
he for some time appears to have followed the business in which 
he had been brought up, till the word of his already adopted Mas- 
ter came to summon him to the actual duties of the discipleship. 
On the journeys that followed this call, he was engaged in no act 
of importance in which he was not also associated with those dis- 
ciples, in whose lives these incidents have been already fully de- 
scribed. On one occasion, however, a solitary instance is recorded 
by Luke, of a remark made by John, during a conversation which 
took place at Capernaum, after the return from the mission through 
Galilee, and not long before the great journey to Jerusalem. It 
seems to have been at the time when Jesus was inculcating a child- 
like simplicity, as an essential characteristic of his followers ; and 
the remark of John is, both by Mark and Luke, prefaced with the 
words — " and John answered and said," — though no very clear 
connexion can be traced between what he said and the preceding 
words of Jesus. The passage, however, is interesting, as showing 
that John was not always most discreet in his regard for the pecu- 
liar honors of his Master,— and in the case which he refers to, had 



JOHN. 313 

in his restrictive zeal quite gone beyond the rules of action, by 
which Jesus expected him to be guided. The remark of John on 
this occasion was — " Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy 
name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us." 
This confession betrays a spirit still strongly under the influence 
of worldly feelings, manifesting a perfectly natural emotion of 
jealousy, at the thought of any intrusion, upon what he deemed 
the peculiar and exclusive privilege of himself and his eleven as- 
sociates in the fellowship of Christ. The high commission of sub- 
duing the malign agencies of the demoniac powers, had been spe- 
cially conferred on the elect twelve, when they first went forth on 
the apostolic errand. This divine power, John had supposed ut- 
terly above the reach of common men, and it was therefore with 
no small surprise, and moreover with some indignant jealousy, 
that he saw a nameless person, not enrolled in the sacred band, 
nor even pretending to follow in any part of their train, boldly and 
successfully using the name of Jesus Christ, as a charm to silence 
the powers of darkness, and to free the victims of their evil influ- 
ences. This sort of feeling was not peculiar to John, but occurs 
wherever there arises a similar occasion to suggest it. It has been 
rife among the religious, as well as the worldly, in all ages ; and 
not a month now passes when it is not openly manifested, marring, 
by its low influences, the noblest schemes of Christian benevolence, 
as well as checking the advances of human ambition. So many 
there are, who, though imbued in some degree with the high spirit 
of apostolic devotion, yet, when they have marked some great field 
of benevolence for their efforts, are apt to regard it as their own 
peculiar province, and are disposed to view any action in that de- 
partment of exertion as an intrusion, and an encroachment on their 
natural rights. This feeling is the worst characteristic of ultra- 
sectarianism, — a spirit which would " compass sea and land," not 
merely " to gain one proselyte," but also to hinder a religious rival 
from the attainment of a similar purpose, — a spirit which in its 
modes of manifestation, and in its results, is nearer to that of the 
demon it aspires to expel, than to that of Him in whose name it 
professes to work. But that such was not the spirit of Him who 
went about doing good, is seen in the mild yet earnest reply with 
which he met the manifestation of this haughty and jealous ex- 
clusiveness in his beloved disciple. " Forbid him not ; for there 
is no man who can do a miracle in my name, who will lightly 
speak evil of me. For he who is not against us is on our part," 



314 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

And then referring to the previous train of his discourse, he 
went on to say, — " For he who shall give you a cup of water in 
my name, because you belong to Christ, I tell you, indeed, he shall 
not lose his reward." So simple were the means of manifesting a 
true regard for Christ, and so moderate were the services which 
would constitute a claim to his remembrance, and to a participation 
in the rights of his ministry. If the act of kindness or of apostolic 
ministration had been done in his name, and had answered its good 
purpose, this was enough to show that he who performed it was 
such a friend as, so far from speaking evil of Jesus, would insure 
the best glory of his name, though he had not attached himself in 
manner and form to the train of regular disciples. Jesus Christ 
did not require a formal profession of regular discipleship, as essen- 
tial to the right of doing good in his name, or to the surety of a 
high and pure reward. How many are there among his professed 
followers in these times, who are " able to receive this saying?" 
There are few indeed, who, hearing it on any authority but his, 
would not feel disposed to reject it at once as a grievous heresy. 
Yet such was, unquestionably, the spirit, the word, and the prac- 
tice of Jesus. It was enough for him to know that the weight of 
human wo, which called him forth on his errand of mercy, was light- 
ened ; and that the spirit before darkened and bound down by the 
powers of evil, was now brought out into glorious light and free- 
dom. Most earnestly did he declare this solemn principle of cath- 
olic communion ; and most distinctly did he reiterate it in a varied 
form. The simplest act of kindness done to the commissioned of 
Christ, would, of itself, constitute a certain claim to his divine 
favor. But, on the other hand, the least wilful injury of one sent 
forth from him, would at once insure the ruin of the perpetrator. 

Soon after this solemn inculcation of universal charity, Jesus 
began to prepare his disciples for their great journey to Jerusalem ; 
and at last having completed his preliminary arrangements, he 
went on his way, sending forward messengers (James and John, 
as it would seem) to secure a comfortable stopping-place, at a Sa- 
maritan village which lay on his road. These select emissaries 
accordingly proceeded in the execution of their honorable com- 
mission, and entering the village, announced to the inhabitants the 
approach of the far-famed Galilean prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, 
who being then on his way to attend the great annual feast in Je- 
rusalem, would that night deign to honor their village with his 
divine presence ; — all which appears to have been communicated 



JOHN. 315 

by the two messengers, with a full sense of the importance of their 
commission, as well as of the dignity of him whose approach they 
announced. But the sturdy Samaritans had not yet forgotten the 
rigid principles of mutual exclusiveness, which had so long been 
maintained between them and the Jews, with all the combined bit- 
terness of a national and a religious quarrel ; and so they dog- 
gedly refused to open their doors, in hospitality to one whose " face 
was as though he would go to Jerusalem." At this manifestation 
of sectarian and sectional bitterness, the wrath of the messengers 
knew no bounds, and reporting their inhospitable and scornful re- 
jection to Jesus, the two Boanerges, with a spirit quite literally 
accordant with their surname, inquired — " Lord ! wilt thou that we 
command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, as 
Elijah did?" The stern prophet of the days of Ahaziah had 
called down fire from heaven to the destruction of two successive 
bands of the insolent myrmidons of the Samaritan king ; and might 
not the wonder-doing Son of Man, with equal vindictiveness, com- 
mission his faithful followers to invoke the thunder on the inhos- 
pitable sectaries of the modern Samaritan race? But however 
this sort of summary justice might suit the wrathful piety of 
James and his " amiably gentle" brother, it was by Jesus deemed 
the offspring of a spirit too far from the forgiving benevolence of 
his gospel, to be passed by unrebuked. He therefore turned re- 
provingly to these fierce " Sons of Thunder," with the reply — 
" Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of 
Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And 
thus silencing their forward, destructive zeal, he quietly turned 
aside from the inhospitable sectarians who had refused him admis- 
sion, and found entertainment in another village, where the inhab- 
itants were free from such notions of religious exclusiveness. 

So idolatrous was the reverence with which many of the Fathers and ancient theo- 
logians were accustomed to regard the apostles, that they would not allow that these 
chosen ones of Christ ever committed any sin whatever ; at least, none after their 
calling to be disciples. Accordingly, the most ridiculous attempts have been made 
to justify or excuse the faults and errors of those apostles, who are mentioned in the 
New Testament as having committed any act contrary to the received standards of 
right. Among other circumstances, even Peter's perjured denial of his Lord has 
found stubborn defenders and apologists ; and among the saintly commentators of 
both Papist and Protestant faiths, have been found some to stand up for the immacu- 
late soundness of James and John, in this act of wicked and foolish zeal. Ambrose 
of Milan, in commenting on this passage, must needs maintain that their ferocity was 
in accordance with approved instances of a similar character in the Old Testament. 
" Nee discipuli peccant," says he, " qui legem sequuntur ;" and he then refers to the 
instance of extemporaneous vindictive justice in Phineas, as well as to that of Elijah, 
which was quoted by the sons of Zebedee themselves. He argues, that, since the 
apostles were indued with the same high privileges as the prophets, they were in this 
42 



316 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

instance abundantly justified in appealing to such authority for similar acts of ven- 
geance. He observes, moreover, that this presumption was still farther justified in 
them, by the name which they had received from Jesus ; " being c sons of thunder' 
they might fairly suppose that fire would come down from heaven at their word." 
But Lampe very properly remarks, that the prophets were clearly moved to these 
acts of wrathful justice by the Holy Spirit, and thereby, also, were justified in a vin- 
dictiveness, which might otherwise be pronounced cruel and bloody. The evidence 
of this spirit-guidance, those old prophets had, in the instantaneous fiery answer from 
heaven, to their denunciatory prayer ; but, on the other hand, in this case, the words 
of Jesus in reply to the Sons of Thunder, show that they were not actuated by aholy 
spirit, nor by the Holy Spirit ; for he says to them — " Ye know not what manner of 
spirit ye are of," — which certainly implies that they were altogether mistaken in sup- 
posing that the spirit and power of Elijah rested on them, to authorize such wide- 
wasting and indiscriminate ruin of innocent and guilty, — women and children, as 
well as men, inhabiting the village; and he rebukes and condemns their conduct for 
the very reason that it was the result of an unholy and sinful spirit. 

Yet, not only the Romish Ambrose, but also the Protestant Calvin, has, in his idol- 
atrous reverence for the infallibility of the apostles, (an idolatry hardly less unchris- 
tian than the saint- w T orship against which he strove,) thought it necessary to condemn 
and rebuke Maldonati, as guilty of a " detestable presumption," in declaring the sons of 
Zebedee to have been lifted up with a foolish arrogance. On the arguments by which 
Calvin justifies James and John, Lampe well remarks, that the great reformer uses 
a truly Jesuitical weapon, (propria vineta caedit Loyolita,) when he says that " they 
desired vengeance not for themselves, but for Christ ; and were not led into error by 
any fault, but merely by ignorance of the spirit of the gospel and of Christ." But was 
not this ignorance itself a sin, showing itself thus in the very face of all the oft-repeat- 
ed admonitions of Jesus against this bloody spirit, even in his or any cause 1 and of all 
his inculcations of a universal rule of forbearance and forgiveness 1 

John is not mentioned again in the gospel history, until near 
the close of the Savior's labors, when he was about to prepare his 
twelve chosen ones, for the great change which awaited their 
condition, by long and earnest instruction, and by prayer. In 
making the preliminary arrangements for this final meeting, John 
was sent along with Peter, to see that a place was provided for the 
entertainment. After this commission had been satisfactorily exe- 
cuted, they joined with Jesus and the rest of the twelve disciples 
in the Paschal feast, each taking a high place at the board, and 
John in particular reclining next to Jesus. As a testimony of 
the intimate affection between them, it is recorded by this apostle 
himself, in his gospel, that during the feast he lay on Jesus's breast ; 
— a position which, though very awkward, and even impossible, 
in the modern style of conducting feasts in the sitting posture, was 
yet rendered both easy and natural, in the ancient mode, both 
Oriental and Roman, of reclining on couches around the table. 
Under these circumstances, — those sharing the same part of the 
couch, whose feelings of affection led them most readily together, 
— such a position as that described by John, would occur very na- 
turally and gracefully. It here, in connexion with John's own 
artless, but expressive sentence, mentioning himself as the disciple 
whom Jesus loved, presents to the least imaginative mind, a most 



JOHN. 317 

beautifully striking picture of the state of feeling between the 
young disciple and his Lord, — showing how closely their spirits 
were drawn together, in an affection of the most sacred and inter- 
esting character, far surpassing the paternal and filial relation in 
the high and pure nature of the feeling, because wholly removed 
from the mere animalities and instincts that form and modify so 
much of all natural love. The regard between these two beings 
was by no means essentially dependent on any striking similarity 
of mind or feeling. John had very little of that mild and gentle 
temperament which so decidedly characterized the Redeemer ; — 
he had none of that spirit of meekness and forgiveness which 
Jesus so often and earnestly inculcated ; but a fierce, fiery, thun- 
dering zeal, arising from a temperament, ardent alike in anger and 
in love. Nor was such a character at all discordant with the 
generality of those for whom Jesus seemed to feel a decided pre- 
ference. There is no one among the apostolic band, whether 
Galilean or Hellenistic, of whose characters any definite idea is 
given, that does not seem to be marked most decidedly by the 
fiercer and harsher traits. Yet like those of all children of nature, 
the same hearts seem to glow, upon occasion, as readily with af- 
fectionate as with wrathful feeling, both, in many instances, com- 
bining in their affection for Jesus. The whole gospel record, as 
far as the twelve disciples are concerned, is a most satisfactory 
comment on the characteristics ascribed by Josephus to the whole 
Galilean race, — " ardent and fierce." And this was the very tem- 
perament which recommended them before all men in the world, 
for the great work of laying the deep foundations of the Christian 
faith, amid opposition, hatred, confusion, and blood. And among 
these wild, but ardent dispositions, did even the mild spirit of the 
Redeemer find much that was congenial to its frame, as well as 
its purposes ; for in them, his searching eye recognized faculties 
which, turned from the base ends of worldly strife and low, brawl- 
ing contest, might be exalted, by a mere modification, and not 
eradication, to the great works of divine benevolence. The same 
temperament that once led the ardent Galileans into selfish quar- 
rels, under the regenerating influences of a holy spirit, might 
be trained to a high, devoted self-sacrifice for the good of others ; 
and the valor which once led them to disregard danger and 
death in spiteful enmity, could, after an assimilation to the spirit 
of Jesus, be made equally energetic in the dangerous labors of 
the cause of universal love. Such is most clearly the spirit of 



318 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the Galilean disciples, as far as any character can be recognized 
in the brief, artless sketches, incidentally given of them in the 
New Testament history. Nor is there any good reason to mark 
John as an exception to these harsher attributes. The idea, now 
so very common, of his softness and amiability, seems to have 
grown almost entirely out of the circumstance, that he was " the 
disciple whom Jesus loved ;" as if the high spirit of the Redeemer 
could feel no sympathy with such traits as bravery, fierce energy, 
or even aspiring ambition. Tempted originally by the great 
source of evil, yet without sin, he himself knew by what spiritual 
revolutions the impulses which once led only to evil, could be 
made the guides to truth and love, and could see, even in the 
worst manifestations of that fiery ardor, the disguised germ of a 
holy zeal, which, under his long, anxious, prayerful care and cul- 
tivation, would become a tree of life, bringing forth fruits of good 
for nations. Even in these low, depraved mortals, therefore, he 
could find much to love, — nor is the circumstance of his affection- 
ate regard, in itself, any proof that John was deficient in the most 
striking characteristics of his countrymen ; and that he was not 
so, there is proof positive and unquestionable in those details of 
his own and his brother's conduct, already given. 

At this Paschal feast, lying, as described, on the bosom of Jesus, 
he passed the parting hours in most intimate communion with his 
already doomed Lord. And so close was their proximity, and so 
peculiarly favored was he, by the confidential conversation of 
Jesus, that when all the disciples were moved with painful doubt 
and surprise at the mysterious annunciation that there was a 
traitor among them, Peter himself, trusting more to the opportu- 
nities of John than to his own, made a sign to him to put to his 
Master a question, to which he would be more likely to receive an 
answer than anybody else. The beloved disciple, therefore, look- 
ing up from the bosom of Jesus, into his face, with the confi- 
dence of familiar affection, asked him, — " Who is it, Lord ?" And 
to his eager inquiry, was vouchsafed at once a most unhesitating 
and satisfactory reply, marking out, in the most definite manner, 
the person intended by his former dark allusion. 

After the scenes of Gethsemane, when the alarmed disciples fled 
from their captured Master, to avoid the same fate, John also 
shared in the race ; but on becoming assured that no pursuit of the 
secondary members of the party was intended, he quietly walked 
back after the armed train, keeping, moreover, close to them, as 



JOHN. 319 

appears by his arriving at the palace gate along with them, and 
entering with the rest, on his way, in the darkness, he fell in with 
his friend Peter, also anxiously following the train, to learn the 
fate of his Master. John now proved of great advantage to Peter ; 
for, having some acquaintance with the high priest's family, he 
might expect admission to the hall without difficulty. This inci- 
dent is recorded only by John himself, in his gospel, where, in re- 
lating it, he refers to himself in the third person, as " another dis- 
ciple," according to his usual modest circumlocution. John, some- 
how or other, was well and favorably known to the high priest 
himself, for a very mysterious reason ; but certainly the most un- 
accountable point in Bible history is this : — how could a faithful 
follower of the persecuted and hated Jesus, be thus familiar and 
friendly in the family of the most powerful and vindictive of the 
Jewish magnates ? Nor can the difficulty be any way relieved, by 
supposing the expression " another disciple" to refer to a person 
different from John ; for all the disciples of Jesus would be equally 
unlikely persons for the intimacy of the Jewish high priest. What- 
ever might be the reason of this acquaintance, John was well- 
known throughout the family of the high priest, as a person high 
in favor and familiarity with that great dignitary ; so that a single 
word from him to the portress, was sufficient to procure the ad- 
mission of Peter also, who had stood without, not daring to enter 
as his brother apostle did, not having any warrant to do so on the 
ground of familiarity. Of the conduct of John during the trial 
of Jesus, or after it, no account whatever is given, — nor is he no- 
ticed in either of the gospels except his own, as present during any 
of these sad events ; but by his story it appears, that, in the hour 
of darkness and horror, he stood by the cross of his beloved Lord, 
with those women who had been the constant servants of Jesus 
during life, and were now faithful, even through his death. Among 
these women was the mother of the Redeemer, who now stood in 
the most desolate agony, by the cross of her murdered son, with- 
out a home left in the world, or a person to whom she had a natu- 
ral right to look for support. Just before the last agony, Jesus 
turned to the mournful group, and seeing his mother near the dis- 
ciple whom he loved, he said — " Woman ! behold thy son !" And 
then to John—" Behold thy mother !" The simple words were 
sufficient, without a gesture ; for the nailed and motionless hands 
of Jesus could not point out to each, the person intended as the 
object of parental or filial regard. Nor was this commission, thus 



LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

solemnly and affectingly given, neglected ; for, as the same disciple 
himself assures us, " from that hour, he took her to his own house." 
The highest token of affection and confidence that the Redeemer 
could confer, was this, — marking, as it did, a most pre-eminent 
regard, by committing to his charge a trust, that might with so 
much propriety have been committed to others of the twelve who 
were very nearly related to the mother of Jesus, being her own 
nephews, the sons of her sister. But so high was the confidence 
of Jesus in the sincerity of John's affection, that he unhesitatingly 
committed to him this dearest earthly charge, trusting to his love 
for its keeping, rather than to the considerations of family, and of 
near relationship. 

In the scenes of the resurrection, John is distinguished by the 
circumstance of his hurrying first, along with Peter, to the sepul- 
chre, on hearing from the women the strange story of what had 
happened ; and both hastening in the most intense anxiety to learn 
the nature of the occurrences which had so alarmed the women, 
the nimbleness of the youthful John soon carried him beyond 
Peter, and outstripping him in the anxious race, he came down to 
the sepulchre before him, and there stood, breathless, looking down 
into the place of the dead, in vain, for any trace of its late pre- 
cious deposit. While he was thus glancing into the place, Peter 
came up, and with a much more considerate zeal, determined on 
a satisfactory search, and accordingly went down into the tomb 
himself, and narrowly searched all parts ; and John, after his re- 
port, also then descended to assure himself that Peter had not been 
deceived by a too superficial examination of the inside. But 
having gone down into the tomb, and seen for himself the grave- 
clothes lying carefully rolled up, but no signs whatever of the 
body that had once occupied them, he also believed the report of 
the women, that the remains of Jesus had been stolen away in the 
night, probably by some ill-disposed persons, for an evil purpose, 
and perhaps to complete the bloody triumph of the Jews, by deny- 
ing the body so honorable an interment as the wealthy Joseph had 
charitably given it. In distress and sorrowful doubt, therefore, he 
returned with Peter to his own house, without the slightest idea of 
the nature of the abstraction. 

The next account of John is in that interesting scene, described 
in the last chapter of his own gospel, on the lake of Galilee, where 
Jesus met the seven disciples who went on the fishing excursion 
by night, as already detailed in the life of Simon Peter, who was 



JOHN. 321 

the first to propose the thing, and who, in the scenes of the morn- 
ing, acted the most conspicuous part. The only passage which 
immediately concerns John, is the concluding one, where the pro- 
phecy of Jesus is recorded respecting the future destiny of this 
beloved disciple. Peter, having heard his Master's prophecy of 
the mode in which he should conclude his life, hoping to pry still 
farther into futurity, asked what would be the fate of John also. 
" Lord, what shall this man do ?" To which Jesus replied,—" If 
I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ?"— an answer 
evidently meant to check his curiosity, without gratifying it in the 
least ; as John himself, remarking on the fact, that this saying 
originated an unfounded story, that Jesus had promised him that 
he should never die,— says that Jesus never specified any such 
thing, but merely said those few unsatisfactory words in reply to 
Peter. The words—" Till I come"— referred simply to the time 
when Christ should come in judgment on Jerusalem, for that un- 
questionably was the "coming," of which he had so often warned 
them, as an event for which they must be prepared ; and it was partly 
from a misinterpretation of these words, by applying them to the 
final judgment, that the idle notion of John's immortality arose. 
John probably surviving the other apostles many years, and living 
to a very great age, the second generation of Christians conceived 
the idea of interpreting this remark of Jesus as a prophecy that 
his beloved disciple should never die. And John, in his gospel, 
knowing that this erroneous opinion was prevalent, took pains to 
specify the exact words of Jesus, showing that they implied no 
direct prophecy whatever, nor in any way alluded to the possibility 
of his immortality. After the ascension, John is mentioned along 
with the rest who were in the upper room, and is otherwise par- 
ticularized on several occasions in the Acts of the Apostles. He 
was the companion of Peter in the temple, at the healing of the 
lame man, and was evidently considered by the chief apostle, a 
sharer in the honors of the miracle ; nor were the Sanhedrim dis- 
posed to deem him otherwise than criminally responsible for the 
act, but doomed him, along with Peter, to the dungeon. He was 
also honorably distinguished by being deputed with Peter to visit 
the new church in Samaria, where he united with him in impart- 
ing the confirming seal of the Spirit to the new converts,— and on 
the journey back to Jerusalem, preached the gospel in many vil- 
lages of the Samaritans. 

From this time no mention whatever is made of John in the 



322 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Acts of the Apostles ; and the few remaining facts concerning him, 
which can be derived from the New Testament, are such only as 
occur incidentally in the epistolary writings of the apostles, Paul 
makes a single allusion to him, in his epistle to the Galatians, 
where, speaking of his reception by the apostles on his second visit 
to Jerusalem, he mentions James, Cephas, and John, as " pillars" 
in the church, and says that they all gave him the right hand of 
fellowship. This little incidental allusion, though so brief, is worth 
recording, since it shows that John still resided in Jerusalem, and 
there still maintained his eminence and his usefulness, standing 
like a pillar, with Cephas and James, rising high above the many, 
and upholding the bright fabric of a pure faith. This is the only 
mention ever made of him in the epistles of Paul, nor do any of 
the remaining writings of the New Testament contain any notice 
whatever of John, except those which bear his own name. But 
as these must all be referred to a later period, they may be left un- 
noticed until some account has been given of the intervening por- 
tions of his long life. Here then the course of investigation must 
leave the sure path of scripture testimony, and lead on through 
the mazy windings of traditionary history, among the uncertain 
records of the Fathers. 

Pillars. — This was an expressive figurative appellation, taken, no doubt, with 
direct allusion to the noble white columns of the porches of the temple, subserving 
in so high a degree the purposes both of use and ornament. The term implies with 
great force, an exalted excellence in these three main supporters of the first Christian 
church, and besides expressing the idea of those eminent virtues which belonged to 
them in common with other distinguished teachers of religion, it is thought by Lampe, 
that there is implied in this connexion, something peculiarly appropriate to these 
apostles. Among the uses to which columns were applied by Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, 
and Romans, was that of bearing inscriptions connected with public ordinances of 
state or religion, and of commemorating facts in science for the knowledge of other 
generations. To this use, allusion seems to be made in Pro v. ix. 1. " Wisdom has 
built her house, — she has engraved her seven pillars." [roxn, hatsebha, may perhaps 
bear this meaning.] And in Rev. iii. 12, a still more unquestionable reference is 
made to the same circumstance. " Him that overcomes, will I make a pillar in the 
temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon Aim the name 
of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes 
down out of heaven from God, — and my own new name ;" — a passage which Grotius 
illustrates by a reference to this very use of pillars for inscriptions. It is in connexion 
with this idea, that Lampe considers the term as peculiarly expressive in its appli- 
cation to " James, Cephas, and John," since from them, in common with all the apos- 
tles, proceeded the oracles of Christian truth, and those principles of doctrine and 
practice, which were acknowledged as the rule of faith, by the churches of the new 
covenant. To these three, moreover, belonged some peculiar attributes of this char- 
acter, since they distinguished themselves above the most of the twelve, by their 
written epistolary charges, as well as by the general pre-eminence accorded to them 
by common consent, leaving to them the utterance of those apostolic opinions, which 
went forth from Jerusalem as law for the Christian churches. 

Lampe quotes on this point Vitringa, (Obs. Sac. I. iii. 7,) Suicer, (Thes. Ecc. voc. 
(ttvXos,) and Gataker, (Cin. ii. 20.) He refers also to Jerome, commenting on Gal. 
ii. 9 ; who there alludes to the fact that John, one of the " pillars," in his Revelation, 
introduces the Savior speaking as above quoted. (Rev. iii. 12. j 



john. 323 



THE RESULTS OF TRADITION. 

Probably there are few results of historical investigation, that 
will make a more decided impression of disappointment on the 
mind of a common reader, than the sentence, which a rigid ex- 
amination compels the writer to pass, with such uniform con- 
demnatory severity, on most apostolic stories which are not sanc- 
tioned by the word of inspiration. There is a universal curiosity, 
natural, and not uncommendable, felt by all the believers and 
hearers of the faith which the apostles preached, to know some- 
thing more about these noble first witnesses of the truth, than the 
bare broken and unconnected details which the gospel, and the 
apostolic acts, can furnish. At this day, the most trifling circum- 
stances connected with them, — their actions, their dwelling-places, 
their lives or their deaths, have a value vastly above what could 
ever have been appreciated by those of their own time, who acted, 
dwelt, lived, and died with them, — a value increasing through the 
course of ages, in a regular progression, rising as it removes from 
the objects to which it refers. But the very course of this pro- 
gression implies a diminution of the means of obtaining the de- 
sired information, proportioned to the increase of the demand for 
it; — and along with this condition of things, the all-pervading 
and ever-active spirit of invention comes in, to quench, with deep 
draughts of delightful falsehood, the honest thirst for literal truth. 
The misfortune of this constitution of circumstances, being that 
the want is not felt till the means of supplying it are irrecoverably 
gone, puts the investigation of the minutiae of all antiquity, sacred 
or profane, upon a very uncertain ground, and requires the most 
critical test for every assertion, offered to satisfy a curiosity which, 
for the sake of the pleasure thus derived, feels interested in de- 
ceiving itself; for 

" Doubtless the pleasure is as great 
Of being cheated as to cheat." 

Even the spirit of deep curiosity, which beguiles the historical 
inquirer into a love of the fabulous and unfounded tales of tradi- 
tion, though specifically more elevated by its intellectual charac- 
ter, is yet generically the same with the spirit of superstitious cre- 
dulity, that leads the miserable Papist to bow down with idolatrous 
worship before the ridiculous trash, called relics, which are pre- 
sented to him by the consecrated impostors who minister to him 
in holy things; and the feeling of indignant horror with which he 

43 



324 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

repulses the Protestant zeal, that would rob his spirit of the com- 
fortable support afforded by the possession of an apostolical toe-nail, 
a lock of a saint's hair, or by the sight of the Savior's handkerchief, 
or of a drop of his blood, — is all perfectly kindred to that indignant 
regret with which even a reformed reader regards all these critical 
assaults upon agreeable historical delusions, — and to that stubborn 
attachment with which he often clings to antique falsehood. Yet 
the pure consolations of the truth, known by research and judg- 
ment, are so far above these baser enjoyments, that the exchange 
of fiction, for historical knowledge, though merely of a negative 
kind, becomes most desirable even to an uncritical mind. 

The sweeping sentence of condemnation against most traditionary 
stories, may, however, be subjected to some decided exceptions in 
the case of John, who, living much longer than any other of the 
apostles, would thus be much more widely and lastingly known 
than they, to the Christians of the first and the second generations 
after the immediate contemporaries of the twelve. On this ac- 
count, the stories about John come with much higher traditionary 
authority, than those which pretend to give accounts of any other 
apostle ; and this view is still further confirmed by the charac- 
ter of most of the stories themselves ; which are certainly much 
less absurd and vastly more probable in their appearance than the 
great mass of apostolic traditions. Indeed, in respect to this apos- 
tle, may be said, what can not be said of any other, that many 
tolerably well-authorized, and a few very decidedly authentic state- 
ments of his later life, may be derived from passages in the ge- 
nuine writings of the early Fathers. 

HIS JUDAICAL OBSERVANCES. 

The first point in John's history, on which the authentic testi- 
mony of the Fathers is offered to illustrate his life, after the Acts 
of the Apostles cease to mention him, is, that during the difficul- 
ties between the weak-minded, Judaizing Christians, and those of 
a freer spirit, who advocated an open communion with those Gen- 
tile brethren that did not conform to the Mosaic ritual, he, with 
Peter, and more particularly with James, joined in recommending 
a compromise with the inveterate prejudices of the Jewish be- 
lievers ; and to the end of his life, though constantly brought in 
contact with Gentiles, he himself still continued, in all legal and 
ritual observances, a Jew. A striking and probable instance of 
this adherence to Judaism, is given in the circumstance, that he 



john. 325 

always kept the fourteenth day of March as holy time, in con- 
formity with one of the most common of the religious usages in 
which he had been brought up ; and the respect with which he 
regarded this observance is strongly expressed in the fact that he 
countenanced and encouraged it, also, in his disciples, some of 
whom preserving it throughout life as he did, brought down the 
notice of the occurrence to those days when the extinction of 
almost all the Judaical part of primitive Christianity made such a 
peculiarity very remarkable. This, though a small, is a highly 
valuable incident in the history of John, containing a proof of the 
strong affection which he always retained for the religion of his 
fathers, — a feeling which deserves the highest commendation, ac- 
companied as it was, by a most catholic spirit towards those Gen- 
tile Christians who could not bear a yoke, which education and 
long habit alone made more tolerable to him. 

With Peter and James. — The authority for this is Irenaeus, (A. D. 167,) who says — 
" Those apostles who were with James, permitted the Gentiles indeed to act freely, 
leaving us to the spirit of God. They themselves, too, knowing the same God, per- 
severed in their ancient observances. * * * Thus the apostles whom 
the Lord made witnesses of his whole conduct and his whole teaching, (for every 
where are found standing together with him. Peter, James and John,) religiously 
devoted themselves to the observance of the law, which is by Moses, thus acknow- 
ledging both [the law and the spirit] to be from one and the same God." (Iren. adv. 
Her.) 

Fourteenth day of March. — This refers to the practice of observing the feast of the 
resurrection of Christ, on the fourteenth day of March, corresponding with the pass- 
over of the Jews, — a custom long kept up in the eastern churches, instead of always 
keeping it on Sunday. The authority for the statement is found in two ancient 
writers ; both of whom are quoted by Eusebius. (H. E., V. 24.) He first quotes 
Poly crates, (towards the end of the second century,) as writing to Victor, bishop of 
Rome, in defense of the adherence of the eastern churches to the practice of their 
fathers, in keeping the passover, or Easter, on the fourteenth day of the month, without 
regard to the day of the week on which it occurred, though the great majority of the 
Christian churches throughout the world, by common consent, always celebrated this 
resurrection feast on the Lord's day, or Sunday. Polycrates, in defense of the Orien- 
tal practice of his flock and friends, so accordant with early Jewish prejudices, quotes 
the example of the Apostle John, who, he says, died at Ephesus, where he (Polycra- 
tes) was bishop. He says, that John, as well as his brother-apostle, Philip, and Poly- 
carp, his disciple, " all observed Easter on the fourteenth day of the month, never 
varying from that day at all." Eusebius (ibid.) quotes also Irenaeus, writing to the 
same bishop Victor, against his attempt to force the eastern churches into the adop- 
tion of the practice of the Roman church, in celebrating Easter always on a Sunday, 
instead of uniformly on the fourteenth day of the month, so as to correspond with 
the Jewish passover. Irenaeus, in defense of the old eastern custom, tells of the 
practice of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of John. Poly carp, coming to 
Rome in the days of Bishop Anicetus, (A. D. 151 — 160,) though earnestly exhorted 
by that bishop to renounce the eastern mode of celebrating Easter always on the four- 
teenth, like the Jewish passover, steadily refused to change, giving, as a reason, the 
fact that John, the disciple of Jesus, and others of the apostles, whom he had intimately 
known, had always followed the eastern mode. This latter authority, fairly derived 
from a person who had been the intimate friend of John himself, may be pronounced 
entitled to the highest respect, and quite clearly establishes this little circumstance, 
which is valuable only as showing John's pertinacious adherence to Jewish forms, to 
the end of his life. 

Socrates, an ecclesiastical historian, (A. D. 439,) alludes to the circumstance, that 



326 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

those who observed Easter on the fourteenth, referred to the authority of the apostle 
John, as received by tradition. 

THE DEPARTURE FROM JERUSALEM. 

Some vain attempts have been made to ascertain the time at 
which the Apostle John left Jerusalem; but it becomes an honest 
investigator to confess, here, the absolute want of all testimony, 
and the total absence of such evidence as can afford reasonable 
ground even for conjecture. All that can be said, is, that there is 
no account of his having left the city before the Jewish war ; and 
there is some reason, therefore, to suppose that he remained there 
till driven thence by the first great alarm occasioned by the unsuc- 
cessful attack from Cestius Gallus. This Roman general, in the 
beginning of the Jewish war, (A. D. 66,) advanced to Jerusalem, 
and began a siege, which, however, he soon raised, without any 
good reason ; and suffering a fine opportunity of ending the war 
at once thus to pass by unimproved, he marched off, though in 
reality the inhabitants were then but poorly provided with means 
to resist him. His retreat, however, gave them a chance to pre- 
pare themselves very completely for the desperate struggle which, 
as they could see, was completely begun, and from which there 
could now be no retraction. This interval of repose, after such 
a terrible premonition, also gave opportunity to the Christians to 
withdraw from the city, on which, as they most plainly saw, the 
awful ruin foretold by their Lord, was now about to fall. Cestius 
Gallus, taking his stand on the hills around the city, had planted 
the Roman eagle-standards on the highths of Zophim, on the 
north, where he fortified his camp, and thence pushed the assault 
against Bezetha, or the upper part of the city. These were signs 
which the apostles of Jesus, who heard his prophecy of the city's 
ruin, could not misunderstand. Here was now " the abomination 
of desolation, standing in the holy place where it ought not ;" and 
as Matthew records the words of Jesus, this was one great sign of 
coming ruin. " When they should see Jerusalem encompassed 
with armies, they were to know that the desolation thereof was 
nigh ;" for so Luke records the warning. " Then let them which 
are in Judea flee to the mountains ; and let them who are in the 
midst of it depart out ; and let not them that are in other countries 
enter into it. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things 
which are written may be fulfilled." The apostles, therefore, 
reading in all these signs the literal fulfilment of the prophetic 
warning of their Lord, gathered around them the flock of the 



john. 327 

faithful ; and turning their faces to the mountains of the northwest, 
to seek refuge beyond the Jordan,- 

— " Their backs they turned, 
On those proud towers, to swift destruction doomed." 

Nor were they alone ; for as the Jewish historian, who was an 
eye-witness of the sad events of those times, records, — " many of 
the respectable persons among the Jews, after the alarming attack 
of Cestius, left the city, like passengers from a sinking ship." And 
this fruitless attack of the Romans he considers to have been so 
arranged by a divine decree, to make the final ruin fall with the 
more certainty on the truly guilty. 

THE REFUGE IN PELLA. 

A tradition, entitled to more than usual respect, from its serious 
and reasonable air, commemorates the circumstance that the Chris- 
tians, on leaving Jerusalem, took refuge in the city of Pella, which 
stood on a small western branch of the Jordan, about sixty miles 
northwest from Jerusalem, among the mountains of Gilead. The 
locality on some accounts is a probable one, for it is distant from 
Jerusalem and beyond Judea, as the Savior directed them to flee ; 
and being also on the mountains, answers very well to the other 
particulars of his warning. But there are some reasons which 
would make it an undesirable place of refuge, for a very long time, 
to those who fled from scenes of war and commotion, for the sake 
of enjoying peace and safety. That part of Galilee which formed 
the adjacent territory on the north of Pella, a few months after, 
became the scene of a devastating war. The city of Gamala, not 
above twenty miles off, was besieged by Vespasian, the general of 
the Roman invading army, (afterwards emperor,) and was taken 
after a most obstinate and bloody contest, the effect of which must 
have been felt throughout the country around, making it any thing 
but a comfortable place of refuge, to those who sought peace. The 
presence of hostile armies in the region near, must have been a 
source of great trouble and distress to the inhabitants of Pella, so 
that those who fled from Jerusalem to that place, would, in less 
than a year, find that they had made no very agreeable exchange. 
These bloody commotions, however, did not begin immediately, 
and it was not till nearly one year after the flight of the Christians 
from Jerusalem, that the war was brought into the neighborhood 
of Pella ; for Josephus fixes the retreat of Cestius Gallus on the 
twelfth of November, in the twelfth year of Nero's reign, (A. D. 



328 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

66,) and the taking of Gamala, on the twenty-third of October, in 
the following year, after one month's siege. There was then a 
period of several months, during which this region was quiet, and 
would therefore afford a temporary refuge to the fugitives from 
Jerusalem ; but for a permanent home they would feel obliged to 
look, not merely beyond Judea, but out of Palestine. Being in 
Pella, so near the borders of Arabia, which often afforded a refuge 
to the oppressed in its desert-girdled homes, the greater portion 
would naturally move off in that direction, and many, too, proba- 
bly extend their journey eastward into Mesopotamia, settling at 
last in Babylon, already becoming a new dwelling-place for both 
Jews and Christians, among whom, as has been recorded in a 
former part of this work, the Apostle Peter had made his home, 
where he probably remained for the rest of his life, and also died 
there. Respecting the movements of the Apostle John in this 
general flight, nothing certain can be affirmed ; but all probability 
would, without any other evidence, suggest that he followed the 
course of the majority of those who were under his pastoral charge ; 
and as their way led eastward, he would be disposed to take that 
route also. And here the floating fragments of ancient tradition 
may be cited, for what they are worth, in defense of a view which 
is also justified by natural probabilities. 

THE JOURNEY EASTWARD. 

The earliest testimony on this point does not appear, however, 
until near the close of the fourth century ; when it arises in the 
form of a vague notion, that John had once preached to the Par- 
thians, and that his first epistle was particularly addressed to them. 
From a few such remnants of history as this, it has been consider- 
ed extremely probable, by some, that John passed many years, or 
even a great part of his life, in the regions east of the Euphrates, 
within the bounds of the great Parthian empire, where a vast 
number of his refugee countrymen had settled after the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, enjoying peace and prosperity, partly forgetting 
their national calamities, in building themselves up almost into a 
new people, beyond the bounds of the Roman empire. These 
would afford to him an extensive and congenial field of labor ; they 
were his countrymen, speaking his own language, and to them he 
was allied by the sympathies of a common misfortune and a com- 
mon refuge. Abundant proof has already been offered, to show 
that in this region was the home of Peter, during the same period ; 



john. 329 

and probabilities, as well as all the most ancient traditions, are 
strongly in favor of the supposition, that the other apostles followed 
him thither, making Babylon the new apostolic capital of the east- 
ern churches, as Jerusalem had been the old one. From that city, 
as a centre, the apostles would naturally extend their occasional 
labors into the countries eastward, especially where their Jewish 
brethren had spread their refugee settlements. Beyond the Roman 
limits, Christianity seems to have made but little progress indeed 
among the Gentiles, in the time of the apostles • and if there had 
been no other difficulties, the great difference of language and man- 
ners, and the savage condition of most of the races around them, 
would have led them to confine their labors at first to those of their 
own nation, who inhabited the country watered by the Euphrates 
and its branches ; whence they might have gone still farther east, 
to lands where the Jews seem to have spread themselves to the 
banks of the Indus, and perhaps within the modern boundaries of 
India. But by intercourse with their countrymen who were 
naturalized among the heathen, they would soon acquire facilities 
for communicating the truth to them ; and there can hardly be a 
doubt that the apostles did actually in this way become missiona- 
ries to the heathen. Nor is it very improbable that the more en- 
terprising among them, after being gradually familiarized with 
barbarian habits and customs, went out alone into untried fields of 
Christian adventure, upon and beyond the Indus. Some wild 
traditionary accounts, of no great authority, even offer reports, that 
the Apostle John preached in India ; and some of the Jesuit mis- 
sionaries have supposed that they had detected such traditions 
among the tribes of that region, among whom they labored. All 
that can be said of these accounts is, that they accord with a rea- 
sonable supposition, which is made probable by other circum- 
stances ; but traditions of such a standing cannot be said to prove 
any thing. 

Parthia. — The earliest trace of this story is in the writings of Augustin, (A. D. 
398,) who quotes the first epistle of John as " the epistle to the Parthians," from which 
it appears that this was a common name for that epistle, in the times of Augustin. 
Athanasius is also quoted by Bede, as calling it by the same name. If he wrote to 
the Parthians in that familiar way, he must have been among them, and many writers 
have therefore adopted this view. Among these, the learned Mill (Prolegom. in N. 
T. § 150) expresses his opinion very fully, that John passed the greater part of his 
life among the Parthians, and the believers near them. Lampe (Prolegom. in Joan. 
Lib. I. cap. iii. § 12, note) allows the probability of such a visit, but strives to fix its 
date long before the destruction of Jerusalem; yet he offers not one good reason for 
such a notion. (See the corresponding passage in Peter's life, page 263.) 

India.— The story of the Jesuit missionaries is given by Baronius, (Ann. 44, § 30.) 
The story is, that letters from some of these missionaries, in 1555, give an account of 



330 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

their finding such a tradition, among an East Indian nation, called the Bassoras, who 
told them that the apostle John once preached the gospel in that region. No further 
particulars are given ; but this is enough to enable us to judge of the value of a story, 
dated fifteen centuries from the event which it commemorates. 

From his residence in Babylon, long-known through succeeding 
centuries as the great eastern metropolitan centre of Hebrew the- 
ology and literature, where the transplanted stocks of Rabbinical 
learning grew up and flourished in new luxuriance, — John proba- 
bly derived peculiar advantages from the peculiar facilities thereby 
afforded him for acquiring a knowledge of those things which, in 
the course of time, became the earliest occasion of error and secta- 
rian division in the Christian churches, calling on the last of the 
apostles for the great concluding work of his life, the dear and 
noble record of his testimony against the combination of Hebrew 
theological subtleties and Oriental mysticisms with the pure sim- 
plicity of the faith of Jesus. In this city, and in the farther East 
also, must have been rife among both Chaldeans and Persians, that 
wild Oriental philosophy which had so large a share in the early 
corruptions of Christianity, and which, floating westward, soon ob- 
scured the first light of apostolic revelation to the churches of 
Hellenic Asia, and afterwards, notwithstanding the evident opposi- 
tion of the last written testimony of the apostles, continued under 
the high name of the Gnosis, or science, to develope during the 
second century under a vast variety of forms, dividing the churches 
and perplexing the teachers. With the original source of these 
dreamy mysticisms, John must have had good opportunities of be- 
coming familiar, and the remarkable aptness and learning on these 
points which his writings show, must have been owing to the 
circumstances of this long eastern residence, at that time of his life 
when mental power was in its fullest vigor. The fact that some 
of these subjects had been pursued by him with actual study and 
deep attention, appears from the profound, extensive, and familiar 
knowledge which his prophetic writings display of Jewish Apocry- 
phal, Cabbalistic, and Talmudic lore. 

' HIS RESIDENCE IN ASIA. 

The great mass of ancient stories about this apostle, take no 
notice at all of his residence in the far eastern regions, on and be- 
yond the Euphrates, but make mention of the countries inhabited 
by Greeks and Romans, as the scenes of the greater part of his 
long life, after the destruction of Jerusalem. The palpable reason 
of the character of these traditions, no doubt, is, that they all come 



JOHN. 331 

from the very regions which they commemorate as the home of 
John ; and the authors of the stories being interested only to se- 
cure for their own region the honor of an apostolic visit, cared 
nothing about the similar glory of countries far eastward, with 
which they had no connexion whatever, and of which they knew 
nothing. That region which is most particularly pointed out as 
the great scene of John's life and labors, is Asia, in the original, 
limited sense of the term, which includes only Ionia, or Maeonia, 
a small portion of the eastern border of the Aegean sea, as already 
described in the life of Peter. The most important place in this 
Ionic Asia, was Ephesus ; and in this famous city the Apostle John 
is said to have spent the latter part of his life, after the great dis- 
persion from Palestine. 

The motives of John's visit to Ephesus are variously given by 
different writers, both ancient and modern. All refer the primary 
impulse to the Holy Spirit, which was the constant and unerring 
guide of all the apostles in their movements abroad on the great 
mission of their Master. The divine presence of their Lord him- 
self, too, was ever with them to support and encourage, in their 
most distant wanderings, even as he promised at parting, — " Lo ! I 
am with you always, even to the end of the world." But histori- 
cal investigation may very properly proceed with the inquiry into 
the real occasion which led him, under that divine guidance, to 
this distant city, among a people who were mostly foreign to him 
in language, habits, and feelings, even though many of them owned 
the faith of Christ, and reverenced the apostle of his word. It is 
said, but not proved, that a formal division of the great fields of 
labor was made by the apostles among themselves, about the time 
of the destruction of Jerusalem ; and that, when Andrew took 
Scythia, and others their sections of duty, Asia was assigned to 
John, who passed the rest of his life there accordingly. This field 
had already, indeed, been gone over by Paul and his companions, 
and already at Ephesus itself had churches been gathered, which 
were afterwards taught and advanced under the pastoral care of 
Timothy, who had been instructed and commissioned for this very 
field, by Paul himself. But these circumstances, so far from de- 
terring the Apostle John from presenting himself on a field of labor 
already so nobly entered, are supposed rather to have operated as 
incitements to draw him into a place where so solid a foundation 
had been laid for a complete fabric. As a centre of missionary 
action, indeed, Ephesus certainly did possess many local advantages 

44 



332 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

of a high order. The metropolis of all Asia Minor, — a noble em- 
porium for the productions of that great section of the eastern con- 
tinent, on whose farthest western shore it stood, — and a grand 
centre for the traffic of the great Mediterranean sea, whose waters 
rolled from that haven over the mighty shores of three continents, 
bearing, wherever they flowed, the ships of Ephesus, — this port 
offered the most ready and desirable means of intercourse with all 
the commercial cities of the world, from Tyre, or Alexandria, or 
Sinope, to the pillars of Hercules, and gave the quickest and surest 
access to the gates of Rome itself. Its widely extended commerce, 
of course, drew around its gates a constant throng of people from 
many distant parts of the world, a few of whom, if imbued with 
the gospel, would thus become the missionaries of the word of 
truth to millions, where the name of Jesus was before unknown. 
And since, after the death of all the other apostles, John survived 
so long, it was very desirable for all the Christian churches in the 
world, that the only living minister of the word who had been in- 
structed from the lips of Jesus himself, should reside in some such 
place, where he might so easily be visited by all, and whence his 
instructions might quickly go forth to all. His inspired counsels, 
and his wonder-working prayers, might be sought for all who needed 
them, and his apostolic ordinances might be heard and obeyed, 
almost at once, by the most distant churches. But the circumstance, 
which more especially might lead the wanderer from the ruined 
city and homes of his fathers, to Ephesus, was the great gathering 
of Jews at this spot, who of course thus presented to the Jewish 
apostle an ample field for exertions, for which his natural and ac- 
quired endowments best fitted him. 

Ephesus. — On the importance of this place, as an apostolic station, the Magdeburg 
Centuriators are eloquent ; and such is the classic elegance of the Latin in which 
these moderns have expressed themselves, that the passage is worth giving entire, for 
the sake of those who can enjoy the beauty of the original. " Considera mirabile 
Dei consilium. Joannes in Ephesum ad littus maris Aegaei collocatus est: ut inde, 
quasi e specula, retro suam Asiam videret, suaque fragrantia repleret: ante se vero 
Graeciam, totamque Europam haberet ; ut inde, tanquam tuba Domini sonora, etiam 
ultra-marinos populos suis concionibus ac scriptis inclamaret et invitaret ad Chris- 
tum ; presertim, cum ibi fuerit admodum commodus portus, plurimique mercatores 
ac homines peregrini ea loca adierint." The beauty of such a sentence is altogether 
beyond the force of English, and the elegant paronomasia which repeatedly occurs in 
it, increasing the power of the original expression to charm the ear and mind, is to- 
tally lost in a translation, but the meanings of the sentences may be given for the 
benefit of those readers to whom the Latin is not familiar : — " Regard the wonderful 
providence of God. John was stationed at Ephesus, on the shore of the Aegean sea ; 
so that thence, as from a watch-tower, he might see his peculiar province, Asia, behind 
him, and might fill it with the incense of his prayers : before him, too, he had Greece 
and all Europe ; so that there, as with the far-sounding trumpet of the Lord, he might 
summon and invite to Christ, by his sermons and writings, even the nations beyond 



john. 333 

the sea, by the circumstance that there was a most spacious haven, and that yast 
numbers of traders and travelers thronged to the place." (Mag. Ecc. Hist. Cent. ii. 2.) 
Chrysostom speaks also of the importance of Ephesus as an apostolic station, allu- 
ding to it as a strong hold of heathen philosophy ; but there is no reason to think that 
John ever distinguished himself by any assaults upon systems with which he was not, 
and could never have been, sufficiently acquainted to enable him to attack them; for 
in order to meet an evil, it is necessary to understand it thoroughly. There is no 
hint of an acquaintance with philosophy in any part of his writings, nor does any his- 
torian speak of his making converts among them. Chrysostom's words are, — " He 
fixed himself also in Asia, where anciently all the sects of Grecian philosophy culti- 
vated their sciences. There he flashed out in the midst of the foe, clearing away 
their darkness, and storming the very citadel of demons. And with this design he 
went to this place, so well suited to one who would work such wonders." (Horn. 1, 
in John. Lampe, Prolegom.) 

In the account given in the Acts of the Apostles, of Paul's visit 
to Ephesus, particular mention is made of a synagogue there, in 
which he preached and disputed daily, for a long period, with 
great effect. Yet Paul's labors had by no means attained such 
complete success among the Jews there, as to make it unnecessary 
for another apostle to labor in the ministry of the circumcision, in 
that same place ; for it is especially mentioned that Paul, after 
three months' active exertion in setting forth the truth in the syn- 
agogues, was induced by the consideration of the peculiar difficul- 
ties which beset him, among these proud and stubborn adherents 
of the old Mosaic system, to withdraw himself from among them ; 
and during the remainder of his two years' stay, he devoted him- 
self, for the most part, to the instruction of the willing Greeks, who 
opened the schools of philosophy for his teachings, with far more 
willingness than the Jews did their house of religious assembly. 
And it appears that the greater part -of his converts were rather 
among the Greeks than the Jews ; for in the great commotions 
that followed, the attack upon the preachers of Christianity was 
made entirely by a heathen mob, in which no Israelite seems to 
have had any hand whatever ; so that Paul had evidently made 
but little impression, comparatively, on the latter class. Among 
the Jews then, there was still a wide field open for the labors of 
one, consecrated, more especially, for the ministry of the circum- 
cision. The circumstances of the times, also, presented many ad- 
vantages for a successful assault upon the religious prejudices of 
his countrymen. The great Centre of Unity for the race of Israel 
throughout the world, had now fallen into an irretrievable oblivion, 
under the fire and sword of the invader. The glories of the an- 
cient covenant seemed to have passed away for ever ; and in the 
high devotion of the Jew, a blank was now left, by the destruction 
of the only temple of his ancient faith, which nothing else on 



334 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

earth could fill. Henceforth he might be trained to look for a 
spiritual temple, — a city eternal in the heavens, whose lasting 
foundations were laid by no mortal hand, for the heathen to sweep 
away in unholy triumph ; but whose builder and maker and 
guardian was God. Thus prepared, by the mournful consumma- 
tion of their country's utter ruin, for the reception of a pure faith, 
the condition of the disconsolate Jews must have appeared in the 
highest degree interesting to the solitary surviving apostle of Je- 
sus ; and he would naturally devote the remnant of his days to 
that portion of the world where he might make the deepest im- 
pression on them, and where his influence might spread widest to 
the scattered members of a people, then, as now, eminently com- 
mercial. 

Under these peculiarly interesting circumstances, the Apostle 
John is supposed to have arrived at Ephesus, where Timothy, if 
still surviving and holding the episcopal chair in which he had 
been placed by the Apostle Paul, must have hailed with great de- 
light the arrival of the venerable John, from whose instructions 
and counsels he might hope to derive advantages so much the 
more welcome, since the sword of heathen persecution had re- 
moved his original apostolic teacher from the world. John must 
have been, at the time of his journey to Ephesus, considerably 
advanced in life. His precise age, and the date of his arrival, are 
altogether unknown, nor are there any fixed points on which the 
most critical and ingenious historical investigation can base any 
certain conclusion whatever, as to these interesting matters. Va- 
rious and widely different have been the conclusions on these 
points ; — some fixing his journey to Ephesus in the reign of 
Claudius, long before the destruction of Jerusalem, and even before 
the dispute on the question of the circumcision. The true char- 
acter of this tale can be best appreciated by a reference to another 
circumstance, which is gravely appended to it by its narrators ; — 
which is, that he was accompanied on his tour by the Virgin Mary, 
and that she lived there with him for a long time. This journey 
too, is thus made to precede the journey of Paul to Ephesus, by 
many years, and yet no account whatever is given of the reasons 
of the profound silence observed in the Acts of the Apostles, on an 
event so important to the history of the propagation of the gospel, 
nor why John could have lived so long at Ephesus, and yet have 
effected so little, thai when Paul came to the same place, the very 
name of Christ was new there. But such stories are not worth 



john. 335 

refuting, standing as they do, self-convicted falsehoods. Others, 
however, are more reasonable, and date this journey in the year of 
the destruction of Jerusalem, supposing that Ephesus was the first 
place of refuge to which the apostle went. But this conjecture is 
totally destitute of all ancient authority, and is inconsistent with 
the very reasonable supposition adopted above, — that he, in the 
flight from Jerusalem, first journeyed eastward, following the 
general current of the fugitives, towards the Euphrates. Where 
there is such a total want of all data, any fixed decision is out of 
the question ; but it is very reasonable to suppose that John's final 
departure from the East did not take place till some years after 
this date ; probably not until the reign of Domitian, (A. D. 81 or 
82.) He had lived in Babylon, therefore, till he had seen most of 
his brethren and friends pass away from his eyes. The venerable 
Peter had sunk into the grave, and had been followed by the rest 
of the apostolic band, until the youngest apostle, now grown old, 
found himself standing alone in the midst of a new generation, like 
one of the solitary columns of desolate Babylon, among the low 
dwelling places of its refugee inhabitants. But among the hourly 
crumbling heaps of that ruined city, and the fast-darkening regions 
of that half-savage dominion, there was each year less and less 
around him, on which his precious labor could be advantageously 
expended. Christianity never seizes readily on the energies of a 
broken or degenerating people, nor does it flourish where the in- 
fluences of civilization are losing their hold. Its exalted and ex- 
alting genius rather takes the spirits that are already on the wing 
for an upward course, and rises with them, giving new energy to 
the ascending movement. It may exert its elevating influence 
too, on the yet wild spirit of the uncivilized, and give, in the new 
conceptions of a pure faith and a high destiny, the first impulse to 
the advance of man towards refinement, in knowledge, and art, and 
freedom ; but its very existence among them is dependent on this 
forward and upward movement,— and the beginning of its mortal 
decay dates from the cessation of the developments of the intellectual 
and physical resources of the race on which it operates. Among 
the subjects of the Parthian empire, this downward movement was 
already fully decided ; and they were fast losing those refinements 
of feeling and thought on which the new faith could best fasten its 
spiritual and inspiring influences ; they therefore soon became but 
hopeless objects of missionary exertion, when compared with the 
active and enterprising inhabitants of the still improving regions 



336 



LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



of the West. " Westward," then, "the star" of Christianity, as " of 
empire, took its way ;" and the last of the apostles was but follow- 
ing, not leading, the march of his Lord's advancing dominion, 
when he shook off the dust of the darkening eastern lands from 
his feet for ever, — turning his aged face towards the setting sun, to 
find in his latter days a new home and a foreign grave among the 
children of his brethren, and to rejoice his old eyes with the glori- 
ous sight of what God had done for the churches, among the 
flourishing cities of the West, that were still advancing in know- 
ledge and refinement, under Grecian art and Roman sway. 

The idea of John's visit to Ephesus, where Timothy was already settled over the 
church as bishop, has made a great deal of useless trouble to those who confound the 
office of an apostle with that of a bishop, and are always degrading an apostle into a 
mere church-officer. Such persons of course, are put to a vast deal of pains to 
make out how Timothy could, manage to keep possession of his bishopric, with the 
Apostle John in the same town with him ; for they seem to think that a bishop, like 
the flag-officer on a naval station, can hold the command of the post not a moment 
after a senior officer appears in sight ; but that then down comes the broad blue pen- 
non to be sure, and never is hoisted again till the greater officer is off beyond the ho- 
rizon. But no such idle arrangements of mere etiquette were ever suffered to mar 
the noble and useful simplicity of the primitive church government, in the least. The 
presence of an apostle in the same town with a bishop, could no more interfere with 
the regular function of the latter, than the presence of a diocesan bishop in any city 
of his diocese, excludes the rector of the church there, from his pastoral charge. 
The sacred duties of Timothy were those of the pastoral care of a single church,— a 
sort of charge that no apostle is known to have ever assumed out of Jerusalem ; but 
John's apostolic duties led him to exercise a general supervision over a great number 
of churches. All those in Little Asia would claim his care alike, and the most distant 
would look to him for counsel ; while that in Ephesus, having been so w T ell establish- 
ed by Paul, and having enjoyed the pastoral care of Timothy, who had been instructed 
and commissioned for that very place and duty, by him, would really stand in very 
little need of any direct attention from John. Yet among his Jewish brethren he 
would still find much occasion for his missionary labor, even in that city ; and this 
was "the sort of duty which was most appropriate to his apostolic character; for the 
apostles were missionaries, and not bishops, except in Jerusalem. 

Others pretend to say, however, that Timothy was dead when John arrived, and 
that John succeeded him in the bishopric,— probably a mere invention to get rid of 
the difficulty, and proved to be such by the assertion that the apostle was a bishop, 
and rendered suspicious also by the circumstance of Timothy being so young a man. 

The fable of the Virgin Mary's journey, in company with John, to Ephesus, has 
been very gravely supported by Baronius, (Ann. 44, § 29,) who makes it happen in 
the second year of the reign of Claudius, and quotes as his authority a groundless 
statement, drawn from a mis-translation of a synodical epistle from the council of 
Ephesus to the clergy at Constantinople, containing a spurious passage which alludes 
to this story, condemning the Nestorians as heretics, for rejecting the tale. There 
are, and have long been, however, a vast number of truly discreet and learned Ro- 
manists, who have scorned to receive such contemptible and useless inventions. 
Among these, the learned Antony Pagi, in his Historico-Chronological Review of Ba- 
ronius, has utterly refuted the whole story, showing the spurious character of the 
passage quoted in its support. (Pag. Crit. Baron. An. 42. § 3.) Lampe quotes more- 
over, the Abbot Facditius, the Trevoltian collectors and Combefisius, as also refu- 
ting the fable. Among the Protestant critics, Rivetus and S. Basnage have discussed 
the same point. 

Of the incidents of John's life at Ephesus, no well-authorized 
account whatever can be given. Yet on this part of apostolic 



john. 337 

history the Fathers are uncommonly rich in details, which are in- 
teresting, and some of which present no improbability on exami- 
nation ; but their worst character is, that they do not make their 
appearance until above one hundred years after the date of the 
incidents which they commemorate, and refer to no authority, 
but loose and floating tradition. In respect to these, too, occurs 
exactly the same difficulty which has already been specified in 
connexion with the traditionary history of Peter, — that the same 
early writers, who record as true these stories which are so proba- 
ble and reasonable in their character, also present in the same 
grave manner other stories, which do bear with them, on their 
very faces, the evidence of their utter falsehood, in their palpable 
and monstrous absurdity. Among the possible and probable inci- 
dents of John's life, narrated by the Fathers, are a journey to Je- 
rusalem, and one also to Rome, — but of these there is no certainty, 
nor any acceptable evidence. These long journeys, too, are wholly 
without any sufficient assigned object, which would induce so 
old a man to leave his quiet and useful residence at Ephesus, to 
travel hundreds and thousands of miles. The churches of both 
Rome and Jerusalem were under well organized governments, 
which were perfectly competent to the administration of their own 
affairs, without the presence of an apostle ; or, if they needed his 
counsel in an emergency, he could communicate his opinions to 
them with great certainty, by message, and with far more quick- 
ness and ease, than by a journey to them. Such an occasion for 
a direct call on him, however, could but very rarely occur, — nor 
would so unimportant an event as the death of one bishop and the 
installation of another, ever induce him to take a journey to sanc- 
tion a mere formality by his presence. His help certainly was not 
needed by any church out of his own little Asian circle, in the 
selection of proper persons to fill vacant offices of government or 
instruction. They knew best their own wants, and the abilities 
of their own members to exercise any official duty to which they 
might be called ; while John, a perfect stranger to most of them, 
would feel neither disposed nor qualified for meddling with any 
part of the internal policy of other churches. But the principal 
condemnation* of the statement of his journey to Rome is contained 
in the foolish story connected with it, by its earliest narrator, — that 
on his arrival there, he was, by order of the emperor Domitian, 
thrown into a vessel full of hot oil ; but, so far from receiving the 
slightest injury, he came out of this place of torture, quite im- 



338 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

proved in every respect by the immersion ; and, as the story goes, 
arose from it perfumed like an athleta anointed for the combat. 
There are very great variations, however, in the different narra- 
tions of this affair ; some representing the event as having occur- 
red in Ephesus, under the orders of the proconsul of Asia, and 
not in Rome, under the emperor, as the earlier form of the fable 
states. Among the statements which fix the scene of this miracle 
in Rome, too, there is a very important chronological difference, — 
some dating it under the emperor Nero, which would carry it back 
as early as the time of Peter's fabled martyrdom, and implies a 
total contradiction of all established opinions on his prolonged re- 
sidence in the East. In short, the whole story is so completely 
covered over with gross blunders and contradictions about times 
and places, that it cannot receive any place among the details of 
serious and well-authorized history. 

Throvm into a vessel of oil. — This silly story has a tolerably respectable antiquity, 
going farther back with its authorities than any other fable in the Christian mythol- 
ogy, except Justin Martyr's story about Simon Magus. The earliest authority for 
this is Tertullian, (A. D. 200,) who says that " at Rome, the Apostle John, having 
been immersed in hot oil, suffered no harm at all from it." (De Praescript. adv. 
Haer. c. 36.) " In oleum igneum immersus nihil passus est." But for nearly two 
hundred years after, no one of the Fathers refers to this fable. Jerome (A. D. 397) 
is the next of any certain date, and speaks of it in two passages. In the first (adv. 
Jovin. I. 14) he quotes Tertullian as authority, but says, that " he was thrown into 
the kettle by order of Nero," — a most palpable error, not sanctioned by Tertullian. 
In the second passage (Comm. in Matt. xx. 23) he furthermore refers in general 
terms to " ecclesiastical histories, in which it was said that John, on account of his 
testimony concerning Christ, was thrown into a kettle of boiling oil, and came out 
thence like an athleta, to win the crown of Christ." From these two sources, the 
other narrators of the story have drawn it. Of the modern critics and historians, be- 
sides the great mass of Papists, several Protestants are quoted by Lampe, as strenu- 
ously defending it ; and several of the greatest, who do not absolutely receive it as 
true, yet do not presume to decide against it ; as the Magdeburg Centuriators, (Cent. 
I, lib. 2, c. 10,) who however declare it very doubtful indeed, " incertissimum est; 1 ' 
— Ittig, Le Clerc, and Mosheim, taking the same ground. But Meisner, Cellarius, 
Dodwell, Spanheim, Heumann, and others, overthrow it utterly, as a baseless fable. 
They argue against it, first, from the bad character of its only ancient witness. 
Tertullian is well known as most miserably credulous, and fond of catching up these 
idle tales ; and even the devoutly believing Baronius condemns him in the most un- 
measured terms, for his greedy and undiscriminating love of the marvelous. Secondly, 
they object the profound silence of all the Fathers of the second, third, and fourth 
centuries, excepting him and Jerome ; whereas, if such a remarkable incident were 
of any authority whatever, those numerous occasions on which they refer to the ban- 
ishment of John to Patmos, which Tertullian connects so closely with this story, 
would suggest and require a notice of the causes and attendent circumstances of that 
banishment, as stated by him. How could those eloquent writers, who seem to dwell 
with so much delight on the noble trials and triumphs of the apostles, pass over this 
wonderful peril and miraculous deliverance 1 Why did Irenaeus, so studious in ex- 
tolling the glory of John, forget to specify an incident implying at once such a cour- 
ageous spirit of martyrdom in this apostle, and such a peculiar favor of God, in thus 
wonderfully preserving him 1 Hippolytus and Sulpitius Severus too, are silent ; and 
more than all, Eusebius, so diligent in scraping together all that can heap up the 
martyr-glories of the apostles, and more particularly of John himself, is here utterly 
without a word on this interesting event. Origen, too, dwelling on the modes in which 



john. 339 

the two sons of Zebedee drank of the cup of Jesus, as he prophesied, makes no use of 
this valuable illustration. (Lampe in Prolegom. in Joannem.) 

On the origin of this fable, Lampe mentions a very ingenious conjecture, that some 
such act of cruelty may have been meditated or threatened, but afterwards given up ; 
and that thence the story became accidentally so perverted as to make what was 
merely designed, appear to have been partly put in execution. 

In this decided condemnation of the venerable Tertullian, I am justified by the ex- 
ample of Lampe, whose reverence for the authority of the Fathers is much greater 
than that of most theologians of later days. He refers to him in these terms : " Ter- 
tullianus, cujus credulitas, in arripiendis futilibus narratiunculis alias non ignota 
est." — " Whose credulity in catching up idle tales is well known in other instances." 
Hanlein also calls him "der leichtglaubige Tertullian,"— " the credulous Tertul- 
lian." (Hanlein's Einleitung in N. T. vol. III. p. 166.) 

This miraculous event procured the highly-favored John, by this extreme unction i 
all the advantages, with none of the disadvantages of martyrdom ; for in consequence 
of this peril he has received among the Fathers the name of a " living martyr," 
({;&>> jxdpTvp.) Gregory of Nazianzus, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Theophylact, and 
others, quoted by Suicer, (sub voce ydprvp,) apply this term to him. " He had the 
mind, though not the fate of a martyr." " Non defuit animus martyrio," &c. (Jerome 
and Cyprian.) Through ignorance of the meaning of the word ^dprvp, in this peculiar 
application ot John, the learned Hanlein seems to me to have fallen into an error on 
the opinion of these Fathers about his mode of death. In speaking of the general 
testimony as to the quiet death of this apostle, Hanlein says: " But Chrysostom, only 
in one ambiguous passage, (Horn. 63. in Matt.) and his follower Theophylact, num- 
ber the Apostle John among the martyrs." (Hanlein's Einleitung in das N. T. 
vol. III. cap. vi. § 1, p. 168.) The fact is, that not only these two, but several other 
Fathers, use the term in application to John, and they all do it without any implica- 
tion of an actual, fatal martyrdom; as may be seen by reference to Suicer, sub voce. 

So little reverence have the critical, even among the Romanists, for any of these 
old stories about John's adventures, that the sagacious Abbot Facditius (quoted by 
Lampe) quite turns these matters into a jest. Coupling this story with the one about 
John's chaste celibacy, (as supported by the monachists,) he says, in reference to the 
latter, that if John made out to preserve his chastity uncontaminated among such a 
people as the Jews were, in that most corrupt age, he should consider it a greater 
miracle than if John had come safe out of the kettle of boiling oil ; but on the reverend 
Abbot's sentiments, perhaps many will remark with Lampe, — " quod pronuntiatum 
tamen nimis audax est." — " It is rather too bold to pronounce such an opinion." 
Nevertheless, such a termination of life would be so much in accordance with the 
standard mode of dispatching an apostle, that they would never have taken him out 
of the oil-kettle, except for the necessity of sending him to* Patmos, and dragging him 
on through multitudes of odd adventures yet to come. 

HIS BANISHMENT. 

This fable of his journey to Rome is by all its propagators con- 
nected with the well-authorized incident of his banishment to Pat- 
mos. This event, given on the high evidence of the Revelation 
which bears his name, is by all the best and most ancient authori- 
ties, referred to the period of the reign of Domitian. The precise 
year is as much beyond any means of investigation, as most other 
exact dates in his and all the other apostles' history. From the 
terms in which the ancient writers commemorate the event, it is 
known, with tolerable certainty, to have occurred towards the 
close of the reign of Domitian, though none of the early Fathers 
specify the year. The first who pretend to fix the date, refer it 
to the fourteenth year of that emperor, and the most critical among 
the moderns fix it as late ; and some even in the fifteenth or last 

4£> 



340 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

year of his reign ; since that persecution of the Christians, during 
which John seems to have been banished, may be fairly presumed, 
from the known circumstances as recorded in history, to have been 
the last great series of tyrannical acts committed by this remark- 
ably wicked monarch. It certainly appears, from distinct asser- 
tions in the credible records of ecclesiastical history, that there 
was a great persecution begun about this time by Domitian, against 
the Christians ; but there is no reasonable doubt that the extent 
and vindictiveness of it has been very much overrated, in the rage, 
among the later Fathers, for exaggerating the sufferings of the early 
Christians far beyond the truth. The first Christian writers who 
allude to this persecution very particularly, specify its character as 
far less aggravated than that of Nero, of which they declare it to 
have been but a shadow, — and the persecutor himself but a mere 
fraction of Nero in cruelty. There is not a single authenticated 
instance of any person's having suffered death in this persecution ; 
all the creditable historians who describe it, most particularly demon- 
strate that the whole range of punishments inflicted on the sub- 
jects of it, was confined to banishment merely. Another reason 
for supposing that this attack on the Christians was very mode- 
rate in its character, is the important negative fact, that not one 
heathen historian makes the slightest mention of any trouble with 
the new sect, during that bloody reign ; although such repeated, 
vivid accounts are given of the dreadful persecution waged by 
Nero, as related above, in the Life of Peter. It is reasonable to 
suppose, therefore, that there were no great cruelties practised on 
them ; but that many of them, who had become obnoxious to the 
tyrant and his minions, were quietly put out of the way, that they 
might occasion no more trouble, — being sent from Rome and some 
of the principal cities, into banishment, along with many others 
whose removal was considered desirable by the rulers of Rome or 
the provinces ; so that the Christians, suffering with many others, 
and some of high rank and character, a punishment of no very 
cruel nature, were not distinguished by common narrators, from 
the general mass of the banished ; but were noticed more particu- 
larly by the writers of their own order, who thus specified circum- 
stances that otherwise would not have been made known. Among 
those driven out from Ephesus at this time, John was included, 
probably on no special accusation otherwise than that of being 
prominent as the last survivor of the original founders, among 
these members of the new faith, who by their pure lives were a 



JOHN. 341 

constant reproach to the open vices of the proud heathen around 
them; and by their refusal to conform to idolatrous observances, 
exposed themselves to the charge of non-conformity to the estab- 
lished religion of the state, — an offense of the highest order even 
among the Romans, whose tolerance of new religions was at length 
limited by the requisition, that no doctrine whatever should be 
allowed to aim directly at the overthrow of the settled order of 
things. When, therefore, it began to be apprehended that the re- 
ligion of Jesus would, in its progress, overcome the securities of 
the ancient worship of the Olympian gods, those who felt their 
interests immediately connected with the system of idolatry, in 
their alarmed zeal for its support, made use of the worst specimens 
of imperial tyranny to check the advancing evil. 

PATMOS. 

The place chosen for his banishment was a dreary, desert island, 
in the Aegean sea, called Patmos. It is situated among that cluster 
of islands, called the Sporades, about twenty miles from the Asian 
coast, and thirty or forty southwest of Ephesus. It is at this day 
known by the observation of travelers, to be a most remarkably 
desolate place, showing hardly any thing but bare rocks, on which 
a few poor inhabitants make but a wretched subsistence. In this 
insulated desert the aged apostle was doomed to pass the lonely 
months, far away from the enjoyments of Christian communion 
and social intercourse, so dear to him, as the last earthly consola- 
tion of his life. Yet to him, his residence at Ephesus was but a 
place of exile. Far away were the scenes of his youth and the 
graves of his fathers. " The shore whereon he loved to dwell," — 
the lake on whose waters he had so often sported or labored in the 
freshness of early years, were still the same as ever, and others 
now labored there, as he had done ere he was called to a higher 
work. But the homes of his childhood knew him no more for 
ever, and rejoiced now in the light of the countenances of stran- 
gers, or lay in blackening desolation beneath the brand of a wasting 
invasion. The waters and the mountains were there still, — they 
are there now ; but that which to him constituted all their reality 
was gone then, as utterly as now. The ardent friends, the dear 
brother, the faithful father, the fondly ambitious and loving mother, 
— who made up his little world of life, and joy, and hope ! — where 
were they ? All were gone ; even his own former self was gone 
too, and the joys, the hopes, the thoughts, the views of those early 



342 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

days, were buried as deeply as the friends of his youth, and far 
more irrevocably. Cut off thus utterly from every thing that 
once excited the earthly and merely human emotions within him, 
the whole world was alike a desert or a home, according as he 
found in it communion with God, and work for his remaining en- 
ergies, in the cause of Christ. Wherever he went, he bore about 
with him his resources of enjoyment, — his home was within him- 
self; the friends of his youth and manhood were still before him 
in the ever fresh images of their glorious examples ; the brother 
of his heart was near him always, and nearest now, when the per- 
secutions of imperial tyranny seemed to draw him towards a sym- 
pathetic participation in the pains and the glories of that bloody 
death. The Lord of his life, the author of his hopes, the guide 
of his youth, the friend of his bosom, the cherisher of his spirit, 
was over and around him ever, with the consolations of his 
promised presence, — " with him always, even to the end of the 
world." 

The date and character of this persecution, are very distinctly given by Eusebius. 
(Hist. Ecc. iii. 18.) " In this persecution, the report is that John the Apostle and 
Evangelist, who yet survived, was condemned, for having testified to the word of 
God, to live on the island of Patmos. Irenaeus (Haeres. V.) says — ' It was not long 
since, but almost in our own age, at the close of the reign of Domitian.' And to such 
a degree did the teaching of our faith shine forth at the period mentioned, that even 
writers opposed to our religion, did not refuse to record in their histories, both the per- 
secution and the testimonies borne in it." (Maprupia, Marturia, in the original sense, 
no death being implied, as the next words show.) " And they have also very particu- 
larly specified the time, recording that in the fifteenth year of Domitian's reign, 
(A. D. 95,) Flavia Domitilla, niece of Flavius Clemens, then consul in Rome, with 
very many others, was, for having testified (or confessed) Christ, banished to the 
island of Pontia." The use of the word fiapripia, (commonly translated martyrdom,) 
in connexion with mere banishment, without injury to life, very satisfactorily sup- 
ports the view taken here and elsewhere, of the vulgar, modern error of multiplying 
cases of actual martyrdoms among the apostles and early Christians. No writer has 
more ably exposed the worthless character of these notions than Henry Dodwell, in 
his critical work, — " De paucitate martyrum," which first attacked the vulgar tradi- 
tions of thousands of martyrs. Antony Pagi opposes him in his views both of the 
Neronian and the Domitianian persecution; and on this passage objects to relying on 
the testimony of Eusebius, for fixing the date of the beginning of this persecution. 
He quotes from the Alexandrine Chronicle a passage taken from Brutius, which 
states that " from the fourteenth year of Domitian, many were martyred" (probably 
in the same sense as the other passage.) The two dates are so expressed as hardly 
to disagree. 

THE APOCALYPSE. 

The Revelation of John the Divine opens with a moving and 
splendid view of these circumstances. Being, as it is recorded, in 
the isle that is called Patmos, for preaching the word of God, and 
for bearing witness of Jesus Christ, he was in his lonely banishment, 
one Lord's day, sitting wrapped in a holy spiritual contemplation, 
when he heard behind him a great voice, as of a trumpet, which 



john. 343 

broke upon his startled ear with a most solemnly grand annunciation 
of the presence of one whose being was the source and end of all 
things. As the amazed apostle turned to see the person from whom 
came such portentous words, there met his eye a vision so dazzling, 
yet appalling in its beauty and splendor, amid the bare, dark rocks 
around, that he fell to the earth without life, and lay motionless, until 
the heavenly being, whose awful glories had so overwhelmed him, 
recalled him to his most vivid energies^ by the touch of His life-giving 
hand. In the lightning splendors of that countenance, far outshining 
the glories of Sinai reflected from the face of Moses, the trembling 
eye of the apostolic seer recognized the lineaments of one whom he 
had known in other days, and upon whose bosom he had hung in 
the warm affection of youth. Even the eye which now flashed such 
rays, he knew to be that which had once been turned on him in the 
aspect of familiar love ; nor did its glance now bear a strange or 
forbidding expression. The trumpet-tones of the voice, which, of 
old, on Hermon, roused him from the stupor into which he fell at the 
sight of the foretaste of these very glories, now recalled him to life 
in the same encouraging words, — " Be not afraid." The crucified 
and ascended Jesus, living, though once dead, now called on his be- 
loved apostle to record the revelations which should soon burst upon 
his eyes and ears ; that the churches that had lately been under 
his immediate care, might learn the approach of events which most 
nearly concerned the advance of their faith. First, therefore, ad- 
dressing an epistolary charge to each of the seven churches, he called 
them to a severe account for their various errors, and gave to each 
such consolations and promises as were suited to its peculiar circum- 
stances. Then dropping these individualizing exhortations, he leaves 
all the details of the past, and the minutiae of the state of the seven 
churches, for a glance over the events of coming ages, and the revo- 
lutions of empires and of worlds. The full explanation of the scenes 
which follow, is altogether beyond the range of a mere apostolic 
historian, and would require such ability and learning in the writer, 
— such a length of time for their application to this matter, and such 
an expanse of paper for their full expression, as are altogether out of 
the question in this case. Some few points in this remarkable writing, 
however, fall within the proper notice of the apostle's biographer ; and 
some questions on the scope of the Apocalypse itself, as well as on 
the history of it, as a part of the sacred canon, will therefore be here 
discussed. 

The minute history of the apostolic writings, — the discussion of 
their particular scope and tenor, — and the evidences of their inspira- 
tion and authenticity, — are topics, which fall for the most part under 
a distinct and independent department of Christian theology, the 
common details of which are alone sufficient to fill many volumes ; 
and are of course altogether beyond the compass of a work, whose 
main object is limited to a merely historical branch of religious know- 



34.4 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ledge. Still, such inquiries into these deeper points, as truly concern 
the personal history of the apostles, are proper subjects of attention, 
even here. The life of no literary or scientific man is complete, 
which does not give such an account of his writings as will show- 
under what circumstances, — with what design, — for what persons, — 
and at what time, they were written. But a minute criticism of their 
style, or illustrations of their meaning, or a detail of all the objec- 
tions which have been made to them, might fairly be pronounced 
improper intrusions upon the course of the narrative. With the 
danger of such an extension of these investigations, fully in view, this 
work here takes up those points in the history of John's writings, 
that seem to fall under the general rule in making up a personal and 
literary biography. 

In the case of this particular writing, moreover, the difficulties of 
an enlarged discussion are so numerous and complicated, as to offer 
an especial reason to the apostolic historian, for avoiding the almost 
endless details of questions that have agitated the greatest minds in 
Christendom, for the last four hundred years. And the decision of 
the most learned and sagacious of modern critics, pronounces the 
Apocalypse of John to be " the most difficult and doubtful book of the 
New Testament." 

The points proper for inquiry in comiexion with a history of the 
life of John, may be best arranged hi the form of questions with 
their answers severally following. 

I. Did the Apostle John write the Apocalypse ? 

Many will doubtless feel disposed to question the propriety of thus 
bringing out, in a popular book, inquiries which have hitherto, by a 
sort of common consent, been confined to learned works, and wholly 
excluded from such as are intended to convey religious knowledge 
to ordinary readers. The principle has been sometimes distinctly 
specified and maintained, that some established truths in exegetical 
theology, must needs be always kept among the arcana of religious 
knowledge, for the eyes and ears of the learned few, to whom " it is 
given to know these mysteries ;" " but that to them that are without," 
they are ever to remain unknown. This principle is often acted on 
by some theologians of Germany and England, so that a distinct line 
seems to be drawn between an exoteric and an esoteric doctrine, — 
a public and a private belief, — the latter being the literal truth, while 
the former is such a view of things as suits the common religious 
prejudices of the mass of hearers and readers. But such is not the 
free spirit of true Protestantism ; nor is any deceitful doctrine of " ac- 
commodation" accordant with the open, single-minded honesty of 
apostolic teachings. Taking from the persons who are the subjects 
of this history, something of their simple freedom of word and ac- 
tion, for the reader's benefit, several questions will be boldly asked, 



john. 345 

and as boldly answered, on the authorship, the scope, and character 
of the Apocalypse. And first, on the present personal question in 
hand, a spirit of tolerant regard for opinions discordant with those 
of some readers, perhaps may be best learned, by observing into what 
uncertainties the minds of the greatest and most devout of theolo- 
gians, and of the mighty founders of the Protestant faith, have been 
led on this very point. 

The great Michaelis apologizes for his own doubts on the Apoca- 
lypse, justifying himself by the similar uncertainty of the immortal 
Luther ; and the remarks of Michaelis upon the character of the per- 
sons to whom Luther thus boldly published his doubts, will be 
abundantly sufficient to justify the discussion of such darkly deep 
matters, to the readers of the Lives of the Apostles. 

Not only Martin Luther as quoted by Michaelis, but the other great 
reformers of that age, John Calvin and Ulric Zwingle, boldly ex- 
pressed their doubts on this book, which more modern speculators 
have made so miraculously accordant with anti-papal notions. Their 
learned contemporary, Erasmus, also, and the critical Joseph Scaliger, 
with other great names of past ages, have contributed their doubts, 
to add a new mark of suspicion to the Apocalypse. 

" As it is not improbable that this cautious method of proceeding will give offense 
to some of my readers, I must plead in my behalf the example of Luther, who thought 
and acted precisely in the same manner. His sentiments on this subject are deliver- 
ed, not in an occasional dissertation on the Apocalypse, but in the preface to his Ger- 
man translation of it, a translation designed not merely for the learned, but for the il- 
literate, and even for children. In the preface prefixed to that edition, which was 
printed in 1523, he expressed himself in very strong terms. In this preface he says : 
' In this book of the Revelation of St. John, I leave it to every person to judge for 
himself: I will bind no man to my opinion ; I say only what I feel. Not one thing 
only fails in this book ; so that I hold it neither for apostolical, nor prophetical. First 
and. chiefly, the apostles do not prophesy in visions, but in clear and plain words, as 
St. Peter, St. Paul, and Christ in the gospel do. It is moreover the apostle's duty to 
speak of Christ and his actions in a simple way, not in figures and visions. Also no 
prophet of the Old Testament, much less of the New, has so treated throughout his 
whole book of nothing but visions : so that I put it almost in the same rank with the 
fourth book of Esdras, and cannot any way find that it was dictated by the Holy Ghost. 
Lastly, let every one think of it what his own spirit suggests. My spirit can make 
nothing out of this book; and I have reason enough not to esteem it highly, since 
Christ is not taught in it, which an apostle is above all things bound to do, as he says, 
(Acts i.) Ye are my witnesses. Therefore I abide by the books which teach Christ 
clearly and purely.' 

" But in that which he printed in 1534, he used milder and less decisive expres- 
sions. In the preface to this latter edition, he divides prophecies into three classes, 
the third of which contains visions, without explanations of them; and of these he 
says : { As long as a prophecy remains unexplained and has no determinate interpre- 
tation, it is a hidden silent prophecy, and is destitute of the advantages which it ought 
to afford to Christians. This has hitherto happened to the Apocalypse ; for though 
many have made the attempt, no one, to the present day, has brought any thing cer- 
tain out of it, but several have made incoherent stuff out of their own brain. On ac- 
count of these uncertain interpretations, and hidden senses, we have hitherto left it to 
itself, especially since some of the ancient Fathers believed that it was not written by 
the apostle, as is related in Lib. III. Hist. Eccles. In this uncertainty we, for our 
part, still let it remain : but do not prevent others from taking it to be the work of St. 
John the apcstle, if they choose. And because I should be glad to see a certain inter- 
pretation of it, I will afford to other and higher spirits occasion to reflect.' 

" Still, however, he declared he was not convinced that the Apocalypse was ca- 



%& 



346 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

nonical, and recommended the interpretation of it to those who were more enlight- 
ened than himself. If Luther, then, the author of our reformation, thought and acted 
in this manner, and the divines of the last two centuries still continued, without the 
charge of heresy, to print Luther's preface to the Apocalypse, in the editions of the 
German Bible of which they had the superintendence, surely no one of the present 
age ought to censure a writer for the avowal of similar doubts. Should it be objected 
that what was excusable in Luther would be inexcusable in a modern divine, since 
more light has been thrown on the subject than there had been in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, I would ask in what this light consists. If it consists in newly discovered testi- 
monies of the ancients, they are rather unfavorable to the cause; for the canon of 
the Syrian church, which was not known in Europe when Luther wrote, decides 
against it. On the other hand, if this light consists in a more clear and determinate 
explanation of the prophecies contained in the Apocalypse, which later commentators 
have been able to make out, by the aid of history, I would venture to appeal to a 
synod of the latest and most zealous interpreters of it, such as Vitringa, Lange, Opo- 
rin, Heumann, and Bengel, names which are free from all suspicion ; and I have not 
the least doubt, that at every interpretation which I pronounced unsatisfactory, I 
should have at least three voices out of the five in my favor. At all events, they 
would never be unanimous against me, in the places where I declared that I was un- 
able to perceive the new light, w T hich is supposed to have been thrown on the subject 
since the time of Luther. 

" I admit that Luther uses too harsh expressions, where he speaks of the epistle of 
St. James, though in a preface not designed for Christians of every denomination : 
but his opinion of the Apocalypse is delivered in terms of the utmost diffidence, which 
are well worthy of imitation. And this is so much the more laudable, as the Apoca- 
lypse is a book, which Luther's opposition to the church of Rome must have rendered 
highly acceptable to him, unless he had thought impartially, and had refused to sacri- 
fice his own doubts to polemical considerations." (Michaelis. Introduction to the 
study of the New Testament. Vol. I. chap, xxxiii. § 1.) 

To pretend to decide with certainty on a point, which Martin Luther boldly denied, 
and which John David Michaelis modestly doubted, implies neither superior know- 
ledge of the truth, nor a more holy reverence for it ; but rather marks a mere pre- 
sumptuous self-confidence, and an ignorant bigotry, arising from the prejudices of 
education. Yet from the deep researches of the latter of these writers, and of other 
exegetical theologians since, much may be drawn to support the view taken in the 
text of this Life of John, which is accordant with the common notion of its authorship. 
The quotation just given, however, is valuable as inculcating the propriety of hesita- 
tion and moderation in pronouncing upon the results of this very doubtful inquiry. 

The testimony of the Fathers, on the authenticity of the Apocalypse as a work of 
John the apostle, may be very briefly alluded to here. The full details of this im- 
portant evidence may be found by the scholar in J. D. Michaelis's Introd. to the N. T. 
(Vol. IV. c. xxxiii. § 2.) Hug's do. (Vol. II. § 184 of the original. 2d edit. § 176 of 
Wait's translation.) Lardner's Credibility of Gosp. Hist. (Supp. chap. 22.) Fabricii 
Bibliotheca Graeca. (Harles's 4to. edit, with Keil's, Kuinoel's, Gurlitt's, and Heyne's 
notes, vol. IV. pp. 786 — 795, corresp. vol. III. pp. 146 — 149, of the first edition.) 
Lampe, Prolegomena in Joannem. 

Justin Martyr (A. D. 140) is the first who mentions this book. He says, " A man 
among us, named John, one of the apostles of Christ, has, in a revelation which was 
made to him, prophesied," &c. Melito (A. D. 177) is quoted by Eusebius and by Je- 
rome, as having written a treatise on the Revelation. He was bishop of Sardis, one 
of the seven churches, and his testimony would be therefore highly valuable, if it 
were certain whether he wrote for or against the authenticity of the work. Probably 
he was for it, since he calls it "the Apocalypse of John," in the title of his treatise, 
and the silence of Eusebius about the opinion of Melito may fairly be construed as 
showing that he did not write against it. Irenaeus, (A. D. 178,) who, in his younger 
days was acquainted with Poly carp, the disciple and personal friend of John, often 
quotes this book as " the Revelation of John, the disciple of the Lord." And in another 
place he says, " It was seen not long ago, almost in our own age, at the end of the 
reign of Domitiaji." This is the most direct and valuable kind of testimony which 
the writings of the Fathers can furnish on any point in apostolic history ; for Irenaeus 
here speaks from personal knowledge, and, as will be hereafier shown, throws great 
light on the darkest passage in the Apocalypse, by what he had heard from those per- 
sons who had seen John himself, face to face, and who heard these things from his own 
lips. Theophilus of Antioch. (A. D. 181,)— Clemens of Alexandria, (A. D. 194.)— 



john. 347 

Tertullian of Carthage, (A. D. 200,)— Apollonius of Ephesus, (A. D. 211,)— Hippo- 
lytus of Italy, (A. D. 220,)— Origen of Alexandria and Caesarea, (A. D. 230,)— all 
received and quoted it as a work of John the apostle, and some testify very fully as 
to the character of the evidence of its authenticity, received from their predecessors 
and from the contemporaries of John. 

But from about the middle of the third century, it fell under great suspicion of be- 
ing the production of some person different from the apostle John. Having been quo- 
ted by Cerinthus and his disciples, (a set of Gnostical heretics, in the first century,) 
in support of their views, it was, by some of their opponents, pronounced to be a fab- 
rication of Cerinthus himself. At this later period, however, it suffered a much more 
general condemnation ; but though denied by some to be an apostolic work, it was still 
almost universally granted to be inspired. Dionysius of Alexandria, (A. D. 250,) in 
a book against the Millennarians, who rested their notions upon the millennial pas- 
sages of this revelation, has endeavored to make the Apocalypse useless to them in 
support of their heresy. This he has done by referring to the authority of some of 
his predecessors, who rejected it on account of its maintaining Cerinthian doctrines. 
This objection, however, has been ably refuted by modern writers, especially by Mi- 
chaelis and Hug, both of whom distinctly show that there are many passages in the 
Revelation, so perfectly opposite to the doctrines of Cerinthus, that he could never 
have written the book, although he may have been willing to quote from it such pas- 
sages as accorded with his notions about a sensual millennium, — as he could in this 
way meet those who did take the book for an inspired writing. 

Dionysius himself, however, does not pretend to adopt this view of the authorship 
of it, but rather thinks that it was the work of John the presbyter, who lived in Ephe 
sus in the age of John the apostle, and had probably been confounded with him by 
the early Fathers. This John is certainly spoken of by Papias, (A. D. 120,) who 
knew personally both him and the apostle ; but Papias has left nothing on the Apoc- 
alypse, as the work of John the Presbyter. (The substance of the whole argument of 
Dionysius is very elaborately given and reviewed, by both Michaelis and Hug.) 
After this bold attack, the apostolic character of the work seems to have received 
much injury among most of the eastern Fathers, and was generally rejected by both 
the Syrian and Greek churches, having no place in their New Testament canon. 
Eusebius, (A. D. 315,) who gives the first list of the writings of the New Testa- 
ment, that is known, divides all books which had ever been offered as apostolical, 
into three classes, — the universally acknowledged, (bpoXoyoviiEva, homologoumena,) — the 
disputed, (dvTiXsyoixsva, antilegoviena,) — and the spurious, (voda, notha.) In the first 
class, he puts all now received into the New Testament, except the epistle to the He- 
brews, the epistles of James and Jude, the second of Peter, the second and third of 
John, and the Revelation. These exceptions he puts, into the second, or disputed 
class, along with sundry writings now universally considered apocryphal. The Rev- 
elation, however, he does not distinctly rank in the second class, but having first men- 
tioned it as a book which some place among the authentic scriptures, he sets it down 
finally as a production considered by many altogether spurious. (Hist. Ecc. iii. 25.) 
Eusebius says also, " It is likely that the Revelation was seen by John the presbyter, 
if not by John the apostle." (H. E. vii. 25.) Cyril of Jerusalem, (A. D. 348,) in his 
catalogue of the Scriptures, does not allow this a place. Epiphanius of Salamis, in 
Cyprus, (A. D. 368,) though himself receiving it as of apostolic origin, acknowledged 
that others in his time rejected it. The council of Laodicea, (A. D. 363,) sitting in 
the seat of one of the seven churches, did not give the Revelation a place among the 
sacred writings of the New Testament, though their list includes all others now re- 
ceived. Gregory of Nazianzus, in Cappadocia, (A. D. 370,) gives a catalogue of the 
canonical scriptures, but excludes the Revelation. Amphilochius of Iconium, in 
Lycaonia, (A. D. 370,) in mentioning the canonical scriptures, says, " The Revelation 
of John is approved by some ; but many say it is spurious." The scriptural canon of 
the Syrian churches rejects it, even as given by Ebed Jesu, in 1285 ; nor was it in 
the ancient Syriac version completed during the first century ; but the reason for this 
may be, that the Revelation was not then promulgated. Jerome of Rome, (A. D. 396,) 
receives it, as do all the Latin Fathers 5 but he says, " the Greek churches reject it." 
Chrysostom (A. D. 398) never quotes it, and is not supposed to have received it. Au- 
gustin of Africa, (A. D. 395,) receives it, but says it was not received by all in his time. 
Theodoret, (A. D. 423,) of Syria, andall the ecclesiastics of that country, reject it also. 

The result of all this evidence is, as will be observed by glancing over the dates of 
the Fathers quoted, that, until the year 250, no writer can be found who scrupled to 
receive the Apocalypse as the genuine work of John the apostle— that the further 

46 



348 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

back the Fathers are, the more explicit and satisfactory is their testimony in its fa- 
vor, — and that the fullest of all is that of Irenaeus, who had his information from 
Polycarp, the most intimate and beloved disciple of John himself. Now, where the 
evidence is not of the ordinary cumulative character, growing weighty, like a snow- 
ball, the farther it travels from its original starting-place, but as here, is strongest at 
the source, — it may justly be pronounced highly valuable, and an eminent exception 
to the usual character of such historical proofs, which, as has been plentifully shown 
already in this book, are too apt to grow less and less, as the investigator travels 
from the last to the first. It will be observed also, by a glance at the places where 
these Fathers flourished, that all those who rejected the Apocalypse belonged to the 
eastern section of the churches, including both the Greeks and the Syrians, while the 
western churches, both the Europeans and Latino- Africans, adopted the Apocalypse 
as an apostolic writing. This is not so fortunate a concurrence as that of the dates, 
since the Orientals certainly had better means of investigating such a point than the 
Occidentals. A reason may be suggested for this, in the circumstance, that the Cerinthi- 
ans and other heretics, who were the occasion of the first rejection of the Apocalypse, 
annoyed only the eastern churches, and thus originated the mischief only among 
them. Lampe, Michaelis, and others, indeed, quote Caius of Rome, as a solitary ex- 
ception to this geographical distribution of the difficulty, but Paulus and Hug have 
shown that the passage in Caius, to which they refer, has been misapprehended, as 
the scholar may see by a reference to Hug's Introd., vol. II. pp. 647—650, of Wait's 
translation, pp. 593 — 596, of the original. There is something in Jerome too, which 
implies that some of the Latins, in his time, were beginning to follow the Greek fashion 
of rejecting this book ; but he scouts this new notion, and says he shall stick to the old 
standard canon. 

The internal evidence is also so minutely protracted in its character, that only a 
bare allusion to it can be here permitted, and reference to higher and deeper sources 
of information, on such an exegetical point, may be made for the benefit of the scholar. 
Lampe, Wolf, Michaelis, Mill, Eichhorn, and others quoted by Fabricius, (Biblio- 
theca Graeca, vol. IV. p. 795, note 46.) Hug and his English translator, Dr. Wait, 
are also full on this point. 

This evidence consists for the most part in a comparison of passages in this book 
with similar ones in the other writings of John, more especially his gospel. Wet- 
stein, in particular, has brought together many such parallelisms, some of which are 
so striking in the peculiar expressions of John, and yet so merely accidental in their 
character, as to afford most satisfactory evidence to the nicest critics, of the identity 
of authorship. A table of these coincidences is given from Wetstein, by Wait, 
Hug's translator, (p. 636, note.) Yet on this very point, — the style, — the most seri- 
ous objection to the Apocalypse, as a work of the author of John's gospel, has always 
been founded ; — the rude, wild, thundering sublimity of the vision of Patmos, pre- 
senting such a striking contrast with the soft, love-teaching, and beseeching style of 
the gospel and the epistles of John. But such objectors have forgotten or overlooked 
the immense difference between the circumstances under which these works were 
suggested and composed. Their period, their scene, their subject, their object, were 
all widely removed from each other, and a thoughtful examination will show, that 
writings of such widely various scope and tendency could not well have less striking 
differences, than those observable between this and the other writings of John. In 
such a change of circumstances, — the structure of sentences, the choice of words, and 
the figures of speech, could hardly be expected to show the slightest similarity between 
works, thus different in design, though by the same author. But in the minuter pe- 
culiarities of language, certain favorite expressions of the author, — particular asso- 
ciations of words, such as a forger could never hit upon in that uninventive age, — 
certain personal views and sentiments on trifling points, occasionally modifying the 
verbal forms of ideas — these and a multitude of other characteristics, making up that 
collection of abstractions which is called an author's style, — all quite beyond the reach 
of an imitator, but presenting the most valuable and honest tests to the laborious 
critic — constitute a series of proofs in this case, which none can fully appreciate but 
the investigators and students themselves. 

II. With what design was the Apocalypse written ? 

There is no part of the Bible which has been the subject of so 
much perversion, or on which the minds of the great mass of Chris- 



john. 349 

tian readers have been suffered to fall into such gross errors, as the 
Apocalypse. This is the opinion of all the great exegetical theolo- 
gians of this age, who have examined the scope of the work most 
attentively ; and from the time of Martin Luther till this moment, 
the opinions of the learned have for the most part been totally dif- 
ferent from those which have made up the popular sentiment, — none 
or few, caring to give the world the benefit of the simple truth, 
which might be ill received by those who love darkness rather than 
light ; and those who knew the truth, have generally preferred to 
keep the quiet enjoyment of it to themselves. This certainly is 
much to be regretted ; for in consequence of this culpable negligence 
of the duty of making religious knowledge available for the good of 
the whole, this particular apostolic writing has been the occasion of 
the most miserable and scandalous delusions among the majority 
even of the more intelligent order of Bible readers, — delusions, 
which, affecting no point whatever in creeds and confessions of faith, 
(those bulwarks of sects,) have been suffered to rage and spread their 
debasing error, without subjecting those who thus indulged their 
foolish fancies, to the terrors of ecclesiastical censure. The Reve- 
lation of John has, accordingly, for the last century or two, been 
made a licensed subject for the indulgence of idle fancies, and used 
as a grand storehouse for every " filthy dreamer" to draw upon, for 
the scriptural prophetical supports of his particular notions of " the 
signs of the times," and for the warrant of his special denunciations 
of divine wrath and coming ruin, against any system that might 
happen to be particularly abominable in his religious eyes. Thus, 
a most baseless delusion has been long suffered to pervade the minds 
of common readers, respecting the general scope of the Apocalypse, 
perverting the latter part of it into a prophecy of the rise, triumph, 
and downfall of the Romish papal tyranny; while in respect to 
the minor details, every schemer has been left to satisfy himself, as 
his private fancy or sectarian zeal might direct him. Now, not only 
is every one of these views directly opposed to the clear, natural, and 
simple explanations, given by those very persons among the earliest 
Christian writers, who had John's own private personal testimony as 
to his real meaning, in the dark passages which have in modern 
times been made the subject of such idle, fanciful interpretations ; 
but they are so palpably inconsistent both with the general scope and 
the minute details of the writing itself, that even without the support 
of this most incontrovertible evidence of the earliest Christian an- 
tiquity, the falsehood of the idea of any anti-papal prophecy can be 
most triumphantly and unanswerably settled; and this has been 
repeatedly done, in every variety of manner, by the learned labors 
of all the sagest of the orthodox theologians of Germany, Holland, 
France, and England, for the last three hundred years. A most ab- 
surd notion seems to be prevalent, that the idea of a rational histori- 
cal interpretation of the Apocalypse, is one of the wicked results of 



350 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

that most horrible of abstract monsters, " German neology f and the 
dreadful name of Eichhorn is straightway referred to, as the source 
of this common-sense view. But Eichhorn, and all those of the 
modern German schools of theology, who have taken up this notion, 
so far from originating the view or aspiring to claim it as their in- 
vention, were but quietly following the standard authorities which 
had been steadily accumulating on this point for sixteen hundred 
years ; and instead of being the result of neology, or of any thing 
new, it was as old as the time of Irenaeus. The testimony of all the 
early writers on this point, is uniform and explicit ; and they all, 
without a solitary exception, explain the great mass of the bold ex- 
pressions in it, about coming ruin on the enemies of the pure faith 
of Christ, as a distinct, direct prophecy of the downfall of imperial 
Rome, as the great heathen foe of the saints. There was among 
them no very minute account of the manner in which the poetical 
details of the prophecy were to be fulfilled ; but the general meaning 
of the whole was considered to be so marked, dated, and individual- 
ized, that to have denied this manifest interpretation in their presence, 
must have seemed an absurdity not less than to have denied the au- 
thentic history of past ages. Not all nor most of the Christian 
Fathers, however, have noticed the design and character of the Apo- 
calypse, even among those of the western churches ; while the skep- 
ticism of the Greek and Syrian Fathers, after the third century, about 
the authenticity of the work, has deprived the world of the great ad- 
vantage which their superior acquaintance with the original language 
of the writing, with its peculiarly Oriental style, allusions, and quota- 
tions, would have enabled them to afford in the faithful interpreta- 
tion of the predictions. From the very first, however, there were 
difficulties among the different sects, about the allegorical and literal 
interpretations of the expressions which referred to the final triumph 
of the followers of Christ ; some interpreting those passages as de- 
scribing an actual personal reign of Christ on earth, and a real 
worldly triumph of his followers, during a thousand years, all which 
was to happen shortly ; — and from this notion of a Chiliasm, or a 
Millennium, arose a peculiar sect of heretics, famous in early eccle- 
siastical history, during the two first centuries, under the name of 
Chiliasts or Millennarians, — the" Greek or the Latin appellative 
being used, according as the persons thus designated or those desig- 
nating them, were of eastern or western stock. Cerinthus and his 
followers so far improved this worldly view of the subject, as to 
inculcate the notion that the faithful, during that triumph, were to 
be further rewarded, by the full fruition of all bodily and sensual 
pleasures, and particularly that the whole thousand years were to be 
passed in nuptial enjoyments. But these foolish vagaries soon passed 
away, nor did they, even in the times when they prevailed, affect 
the standard interpretation of the general historical relations of the 
prophecy. 



JOHN. 351 

It was not until a late age of modern times, that any one pretended 
to apply the denunciations of ruin, with which the Apocalypse 
abounds, to any object but heathen, imperial rome, or to the pagan 
system generally, as personified or concentrated in the existence of 
that city. During the middle ages, the Franciscans, an order of 
monks, fell under the displeasure of the papal power ; and being 
visited with the censures of the head of the Romish church, retorted, 
by denouncing him as an Anti-Christ, and directly set all their wits 
to work to annoy him in various ways, by tongue and pen. In the 
course of this furious controversy, some of them turned their atten- 
tion to the prophecies respecting Rome, which were found in the 
Apocalypse, then received as an inspired book by all the adherents 
of the church of Rome ; and searching into the denunciations of ruin 
on the Babylon of the seven hills, immediately saw by what a slight 
perversion of expressions, they could apply all this dreadful language 
to their great foe. This they did accordingly, with all the spite which 
had suggested it ; and in consequence of this beginning, the Apoca- 
lypse thenceforward became the great storehouse of scriptural abuse 
of the Pope, to all who happened to quarrel with him. This con- 
tinued the fashion, down to the time of the Reformation ; but the bold 
Luther and his coadjutors, scorned the thought of a scurrilous aid, 
drawn from such a source, and with a noble honesty not only refused 
to adopt this construction, but even did much to throw suspicion on 
the character of the book itself. Luther, however, had not the genius 
suited to minute historical and critical observations ; and his con- 
demnation of it therefore, though showing his own honest confidence 
in his mighty cause to be too high to allow him to use a dishonest 
aid, yet does not affect the results to which a more deliberate exami- 
nation has led those who were as honest as he, and much better 
critics. This, however, was the state in which the early reformers 
left the interpretation of the Apocalypse. But in later times, a set of 
violently zealous Protestants, headed by Napier, Beza, Durham, 
Henry More, Mede, and bishop Newton, took up the Revelation of 
John, as a complete anticipative history of the triumphs, the cruel- 
ties, and the common ruin of the Papal tyranny. These were 
followed by numerous commentators and sermonizers, who went 
on with all the elaborate details of this interpretation, even to the 
precise meaning of the teeth and tails of the prophetical locusts. 
These views were occasionally varied by others tracing the whole 
history of the world in these few chapters, and finding the conquests 
of the Huns, the Saracens, the Turks, &c, and even of Napoleon, 
all delineated with most amazing particularity. ~ 

But while these idle fancies were amusing the heads of men, who 
showed more sense in other things, the great current of Biblical 
knowledge had been flowing on very uniformly in the old course of 
rational interpretation, and the genius of modern criticism had 
already been doing much to perfect the explanations of passages on 



352 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

which the wisdom of the Fathers had never pretended to throw 
light. Of all critics who ever took up the Apocalypse in a rational 
way, none ever saw so clearly its real force and application as 
Hugo Grotius ; and to him belongs the praise of having been the 
first of the moderns to apprehend and expose the truth of this sub- 
limest of apostolic records. This mighty champion of Protestant 
evangelical theology, with that genius which was so resplendent 
in all his illustrations of Divine things as well as of human law, 
distinctly pointed out the three grand divisions of the prophetical 
plan of the work. " The visions as far as to the end of the eleventh 
chapter, describe the affairs of the Jews ; then, as far as to the end 
of the twentieth chapter, the affairs of the Romans ; and thence to 
the end, the most flourishing state of the Christian church." Later 
theologians, following the great plan of explanation thus marked 
out, have still farther perfected it, and penetrated still deeper into the 
mysteries of the whole. They have shown that the two cities, Rome 
and Jerusalem, whose fate constitutes the most considerable portions 
of the Apocalypse, are mentioned only as the seats of two religions 
whose fall is foretold ; and that the third city, the new Jerusalem, 
whose triumphant heavenly building is described in the end, after 
the downfall of the former two, is the religion of Christ. Of these 
three cities, the first is called Sodom ; but it is easy to see that this 
name of sin and ruin is only used to designate another devoted by 
the wrath of God to a similar destruction. Indeed, the sacred writer 
himself explains that this is only a metaphorical or spiritual use of 
the term, — " which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt ; — and 
to set its locality beyond all possibility of doubt, it is furthermore 
described as the city " where also our Lord was crucified." It is 
also called the " Holy city," and in it was the temple. Within, have 
been slain two faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ ; these are the two 
Jameses, — the great apostolic protomartyrs ; James the son of Zebe- 
dee, killed by Herod Agrippa, and James the brother of our Lord, 
the son of Alpheus, killed by order of the high priest, in the reign 
of Nero, as described in the lives of those apostles. The ruin of the 
city is therefore sealed. The second described, is called Babylon ; 
but that Chaldean city had fallen to the dust of its plain, centuries 
before : and this city, on the other hand, stood on seven hills, and it 
was, at the moment when the apostle wrote, the seat of " the king- 
dom of the kingdoms of the earth," the capital of the nations of the 
world, — expressions which distinctly mark it to be imperial Rome. 
The seven angels pour out the seven vials of wrath on this Babylon, 
and the awful ruin of this mighty city is completed. 

To give repetition and variety to this grand view of the downfall 
of these two dominant religions, and to present these grand objects 
of the Apocalypse in new relations to futurity, which could not be 
fully expressed under the original figures of the cities which were 
the capital seats of each, they are each again presented under the 



JOHN. 



poetical image of two females, whose actions and features describe 
the fate of these two systems, and their upholders. First, immedi- 
diately after the account of the city which is called Sodom, a female 
is described as appearing in the heavens, in a most peculiar array 
of glory, clothed in the sun's rays, with the moon beneath her feet, 
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. This woman, thus 
splendidly arrayed, and exalted to the skies, represents the ancient 
covenant, crowned with all the old and holy honors of the twelve 
tribes of Israel. A huge red dragon (the image under which Daniel 
anciently represented idolatry) rises in the heavens, sweeping away 
the third part of the stars, and characterized by seven heads and 
ten horns, (thus identified with a subsequent metaphor representing 
imperial Rome ;) — he rages to devour the offspring to which the 
woman is about to give existence. The child is born destined to 
rule all nations with a rod of iron, — and is caught up to the throne 
of God, while the mother flees from the rage of the dragon into the 
wilderness, where she is to wander for ages, till the time decreed by 
God for her return. Thus, when from the ancient covenant had 
sprung forth the new revelation of truth in Jesus, it was driven by 
the rage of heathenism from its seat of glory, to wander in loneliness, 
unheeded save by God, till the far distant day of its blissful re-union 
with its heavenly offspring, which is, under the favor of God, ad- 
vancing to a firm and lasting dominion over the nations. Even in 
her retirement, she is followed by the persecutions of the dragon, 
now cast down from higher glories ;— but his fury is lost, — she is 
protected by the earth, [sheltered by the Parthian empire ; (?)] yet 
the dragon still persecutes those of her children who believe in 
Christ, and are yet within his power ; [Jews and Christians perse- 
cuted in Rome, by Nero and Domitian. (?)] 

Again, after the punishment and destruction of imperial Babylon 
have been described, a second female appears, not in heaven, like 
the first, but in an earthly wilderness splendidly attired, but not 
with the heavenly glories of the sun, moon, and stars. Purple and 
scarlet robes are her covering, marking an imperial honor ; and gold, 
silver, and all earthly gems, adorn her, — showing only worldly 
greatness. In her hand is the golden cup of sins and abominations, 
and she is designated beyond all possibility of mistake, by the words 
" Mystery, Babylon the Great." This refers to the fact, that 
Rome had another name which was kept a profound secret, known 
only to the priests, and on the preservation of which religious a mys- 
tery," the fortunes of the empire were supposed to depend. The 
second name also identifies her with the city before described as 
" Babylon." She sits on a scarlet beast, with seven heads and ten 
horns. The former are afterwards minutely explained by the apos- 
tle himself, in the same chapter, as the seven hills on which she sits ; 
they are also seven kings, that is, it would seem, seven periods of 
empire, epochs of triumph, or leaders of conquest, of which five are 



354 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

past, one now is, and one brief one is yet to come, and the bloody- 
beast itself— the religion of heathenism — is another, — an eighth 
power, yet one of the seven, coeval with all and each, yet doomed 
with them at last, to perdition. The ten horns are the ten kings or 
sovrans who never received any lasting dominion, but merely held 
the sway one after another, a brief hour, with the beast, or spirit of 
heathenism. These, in short, are the ten emperors of Rome before 
the days of the Apocalypse : — Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Clau- 
dius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Yitellius, Vespasian, and Titus. These 
had all reigned, each his hour, giving his power to the support of 
heathenism, and thus warring against the faith of the true believers. 
Still, though reigning over the imperial city, they shall hate her, 
and make her desolate ; strip her of her costly attire, and burn her 
with fire. How well expressed here the tyranny of the worst of the 
Caesars, plundering the state, banishing the citizens, and, in the case 
of Nero, " burning her with fire !" Who can mistake the gorgeously 
awful picture ? It is heathen imperial Rome, desolating and deso- 
lated, at that moment suffering under the tyrannic sway of him whom 
the apostle cannot yet number with the gloomy ten, that have 
passed away to the tomb of ages gone. It is the mystic Babylon, 
drunk with the blood of the faithful witnesses of Christ, and tri- 
umphing in the agonies of his saints, " butchered to make a Roman 
holiday !" No wonder that the amazement of the apostolic seer 
should deepen into horror, and highten to indignation. Through 
her tyranny his brethren had been slaughtered, or driven out from 
among men, like beasts ; and by that same tyranny he himself was 
now doomed to a lonely exile from friends and apostolic duties, on 
that wild heap of barren rocks. Well might he burst out in pro- 
phetic denunciation of her ruin, and rejoice in the awful doom, 
which the angels of God sung over her ; and listen exultingly to 
the final wail over her distant fall, rolling up from futurity, in the 
coming day of the Gothic and Yandal and Hunnish and Herulic 
ravagers, when she should be " the desolator desolate, the victor 
overthrown." 

Mystery. — There is a remarkable reference, not often noticed, in these words, to 
the fact that ancient Rome had a mysterious came, supposed to be connected with 
the destiny of the city, and kept as an awful religious secret among the most solemn 
arcana of heathenism. The learned and ingenious Creuzer, in his profound work 
on the religion "of ancient Italy, touching in conclusion on the religious antiquities 
and the founding of Rome, remarks — " It was now necessary that the city should also 
have its name, — or rather, several names, — an ordinary, an extraordinary, and a 
mysterious name. It is known how much the nations of antiquity relied on the 
power of secret names. There was one name for it, which only the' gods, and men 
to whom it was entrusted by the gods, knew, — another name known only to the 
priests, — and a name for the whole people's use. Romulus, too, gave his city three 
names ; a secret one, a sacerdotal, and a public one. The secret name was, Love, 
(Lat. Amor, an anagram on Roma. Probus and Servius on Virgil Ecloga. I. 5,) be- 
cause all dwelt in the city in harmony, under the influence of divine love : the sacer- 
dotal name was Flop a, or Anthusa, (Av9ovca,jlovjery, Macrob. and Solin ;) and the 
Eublic name was Rome. The well-known passage in the Apocalypse of John (xvii. 5) 
as given rise to several investigations into the secret names of the city of Rome. 



john. 355 

Munter (De occulto urbis Romae nomine) has lately given an examination of the 
evidences. He quotes the most important opinions, and expresses his surprise that 
no one has ever fallen upon the name Saturnia. This name was consecrated in 
Etruria and Latium ; and the original ancient Rome had at first two hills [of the 
seven finally included] within the circuit of its walls, viz. the Pallanteum, after- 
wards the Palatine hill, and the Capitoline, on which formerly stood the little city 
of Saturnia, (Dionys. Halicarn. and Varro ;) and Munter thinks he has now found 
on old Roman coins, traces of the fact that Saturnia was the earliest mark of the lo- 
cality which afterwards became known as the Capitoline hill. — The sacerdotal name, 
Anthusa, (or, in Latin, Flora,) had its own legend. Tarquinius Priscus wished to 
build on the Tarpeian hill, (afterwards the Capitoline.) For this purpose, many 
places on which altars then stood, must be unhallowed, (exaugurate, that is, reduced 
from a sacred to a common use.) The Augurs effected this with the altars of all the 
rest of the gods, without difficulty ; but Terminus, (the god of boundaries,) and Ju- 
ventas, (the goddess of youth, Hebe?) refused to give way. The conclusion at which 
the prophets (or Augurs) then arrived on this occurrence, was the joyful hope that no 
time should ever displace the boundary of the city of Rome, or overthrow its high place. 
This was implied in the names of Flora, or the blooming, and Valentia-Roma, or 
the strong. The ancient Rome is said to have had the name of Valentia, (or, as 
Munter suggests, in accordance with the forms of the early Latin, Valesia, or Va- 
leria?) But after the time of the Grecian Evander, it is said to have received the 
Greek name, Rome, ('Pw^, strength.) [The idle fiction that the city took its name 
from Romulus, has long been exploded, the king having undoubtedly taken his name 
from the city which he enlarged and ruled.] The old etymology from ruma, (breast,) 
has been lately favored, however, by A. W. Schlegel, and is supported by some Ro- 
man antiquities. But the derivation from the Greek, 'Pw^, (Rome, strength,) has 
many mythological -supports, and Satur (whence Saturnus and Saturnia) signifies 
moreover ' manly,' ' strong] as does Mavors also." (Creuzer's Symbolik. Theil. 
II. cap. ix. § 18. pp. 1001—1003.) 

From the assurances conveyed by these most ancient religious mysteries and 
prophecies, as well as from the possession of the seven mystic pledges of eternal 
duration, (the royal stone, the earthen car of Jupiter from Veii, the ashes of Orestes, 
the sceptre of Priam, the veil of Helen, the ancilia, and the palladium,) the proud 
Romans derived their firm belief of the eternity of their city. The title of " Eternal 
city," (Aeterna urbs,) which is so often applied to Rome, on ancient coins and in- 
scriptions, marks the confidence which national and religious feeling inspired in 
Roman patriots and monarchs, that the centre of dominion should never depart from 
the seven-hilled seat to which so many pledges held it. And it is most remarkable 
that to this day those high prophetic anticipations are justified by the unequaled 
power which Rome still holds over the vast majority of the civilized and Christian 
world, in religion and historical association, maintaining more than its ancient glory 
and power, in the hearts of millions. 

Never received any dominion. — The Greek ovnu (oupo) is in the common English 
version translated " not as yet ;" but the ordinary natural force of the word requires 
nothing more than the vague " never." 

As there are three mystically named cities — Sodom, Babylon, and 
the New Jerusalem ; so there are three metaphoric females, — the 
star-crowned woman in heaven, the bloody harlot on the beast in 
the wilderness, and the bride, the Lamb's wife. A peculiar fate be- 
falls each of the three pairs. The spiritual Sodom (Jerusalem) 
falls under a temporary ruin, trodden under foot by the Gentiles, 
forty-two months ; and the star-crowned daughter of Zion (Judaism) 
wanders desolate in the wilderness of the world, for twelve hundred 
and sixty days, till the hand of her God shall restore her to grace 
and glory. The great Babylon of the seven hills, (Rome,) falls 
under a doom of far darker, and of irrevocable desolation : — like the 
dashing roar of the sinking rock thrown into the sea, she is thrown 
down, and shall be found no more at all. And such, too, is the 

47 






356 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

doom of the fierce scarlet rider of the beast, (Heathenism,) — " Re- 
joice oyer her, O heaven ! and ye holy apostles and prophets ! for 
God has avenged you on her." But beyond all this awful ruin ap- 
pears a vision of contrasting, splendid beauty. 
" The two first acts already past, 

The third shall close the drama with the day — 

Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

The shouts of vindictive triumph over the dreadful downfall of 
the bloody city, now soften and sweeten into the songs of joy and 
praise, while the New Jerusalem (the Church of God and Christ) 
comes down from the heavens in a solemn, glorious mass of living 
splendor, to bless the earth with its holy presence. In this last great 
scene, also, there is a female, the third of the mystic series ; not like 
her of the twelve stars, now wandering like a widow disconsolate, 
in the wilderness ; — not like her of the jeweled, scarlet, and purple 
robes, cast down from her lofty seat, like an abandoned harlot, now 
desolate in ashes, from which her smoke rises up for ever and 
ever ; — but it is one, all holy, happy, pure, beautiful, coming down 
stainless from the throne of God, (Christianity,) — a bride, crowned 
with the glory of God, adorned for her husband, — the One slain from 
the foundation of the world. He through the opening heavens, too, 
has come forth before her, the Word of God, the Faithful and the 
True, — known by his bloody vesture, stained, not in the gore of 
slaughtered victims, but in the pure blood poured forth by himself, 
for the world, from its foundation. Lately he rode forth on his 
white horse, as a warrior-king, dealing judgment upon the world 
with the sword of wrath, — with the sceptre of iron. Behind him 
rode the armies of heaven, — the hallowed hosts of the chosen of God, 
— like their leader, on white horses, but not like him, in crimson 
vesture ; their garments are white and clean ; by a miracle of puri- 
fication, they are washed and made white in blood. This mighty 
leader, with these bright armies, now returns from the conquests to 
which he rode forth from heaven so gloriously. The kings and the 
hosts of the earth have arrayed themselves in vain against him ; — 
the mighty imperial monster, in all the vastness of his wide dominion, 
— the false prophets of heathenism, combining their vile deceptions 
with his power, are vanquished, crushed with all their miserable 
slaves, whose flesh now fills and fattens the eagles, the vultures, and 
the ravens. The spirit of heathenism is crushed ; the dragon, the 
monster of idolatry, is chained, and sunk into the bottomless pit, — 
yet not for ever. After a course of ages, — a mystic thousand years, 
— -he slowly rises, and winding with serpent cunning among the na- 
tions, he deceives them again ; till at last, lifting his head over the 
world, he gathers each idolatrous and barbarous host together, from 
the whole breadth of the earth, encompassing and assaulting the 
camp of the saints ; but while they hope for the ruin of the faithful, 
fire comes down from God, and devours them. The accusing de- 



john. 357 

ceiver, — the genius of idolatry and superstition, is at last seized and 
bound again ; but not for a mere temporary imprisonment. With 
the spirit of deception and imposture, he is cast into a sea of fire, 
where both are held in unchanging torment, day and night, for ever. 
But one last, awful scene remains ; and that is one, that in sublimity, 
and vastness, and beauty, shining out from amid the most overwhelm- 
ing horror, as far outgoes the highest efforts of any genius of human 
poetry, as the boundless expanse of the sky excels the mightiest work 
of man. " A great white throne is fixed, and One sits on it, from whose 
face heaven and earth flee away, and no place is found for them." 
" The dead, small and great, stand before God ; they are judged and 
doomed, as they arise from the sea and from the land, — from Hades, 
and from every place of death ." O ver all , rises the new heaven and the 
new earth, to which now comes down the city of God, — the church 
of Christ, — into which the victorious, the redeemed, and the faithful 
enter. The Conqueror and his armies march into the bridal city 
of the twelve jeweled gates, on whose twelve foundation-stones are 
written the names of the mighty founders, the twelve apostles of 
the slain one. The glories of that last, heavenly, and truly eternal 
city, are told ; and the mighty course of prophecy ceases. The three 
great series of events are announced ; the endless triumphs of the 
faithful are achieved. 

III. What is the style of the Apocalypse? 

This inquiry refers to the language, spirit, and rhetorical struc- 
ture of the writing, to its rank as an effort of composition, and to 
its peculiarities as expressive of the personal character and feelings 
of its inspired writer. The previous inquiry has been answered in 
such a way as to illustrate the points involved in the present one ; 
and a recapitulation of the simple results of that inquiry, will best 
present the facts necessary for a satisfactory reply to some points of 
this. 

First, the Apocalypse is a prophecy, in the common understand- 
ing of the term ; but is not limited, as in the ordinary sense of that 
word, to a mere declaration of futurity ; it embraces in its plan the 
events of the past, and with a glance like that of the Eternal, sweeps 
over that which has been, and that which is to be, as though both 
were novj; and in its solemn course through ages, past, present, and 
future, it bears the record of faithful history, as well as of glorious 
prophecy. 

Second, the Apocalypse is poetry, in the highest and justest sense 
of the word. AH prophecy is poetry. The sublimity of such 
thoughts can not be expressed in the plain unbroken detail of a prose 
narrative ; and even when the events of past history are combined 
in one harmonious series with wide views of the future, they, too, 
rise from the dull unpictured record of a mere narrator, and share 
in the elevation of the mighty whole. The spirit of the writer, re- 



358 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

plete, not with mere particulars, but with vivid images, seeks lan- 
guage that paints, " thoughts that breathe, and words that burn ;" 
and thus the writing that flows forth is poetry, — the imaginative ex- 
pression of deep, high feeling — swelling where the occasion moves 
the writer, into the energy of passion, whether dark or holy. 

The character of the Apocalypse, as aifected by the passionate feel- 
ings of the writer, is also a point which has been illustrated by fore- 
going historical statements of his situation and condition at the time 
of the Revelation. He was the victim of an unjust and cruel sen- 
tence, deprived of all the sweet earthly solaces, of his advanced age, 
and left on a desert rock, useless to the cause of Christ, and beyond 
even the knowledge of its progress. The mournful sound of sweep- 
ing winds and dashing waves, alone broke the dreary silence of his 
loneliness, and awaking sensations only of a melancholy order, sent 
back his thoughts into the sadder remembrances of the past, and 
called up also many of the sterner emotions against those who had 
been the occasions of the past and present calamities which grieved 
him. The very outset is in such a tone as these circumstances 
would naturally inspire. A deep, holy indignation breaks forth in 
the solemn annunciation of himself, as their "brother and companion 
in tribulation." Sadness is the prominent sentiment expressed in 
all the addresses to the churches ; and in the prelude to the great 
Apocalypse, while the ceremonies of opening the book which con- 
tains it are going on, the strong predominant emotion of the writer 
is again betrayed in the vision of " the souls of them that were slain 
for the word of God, and for the testimony which they bore f and 
the solemnly mournful cry which they send up to him for whom 
they died, expresses the deep and bitter feeling of the writer towards 
the murderers, — " How long, O Lord ! holy and true ! dost thou not 
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth V The 
apostle was thinking of the martyrs of Jerusalem and Rome, — of 
those who fell under the persecutions of the high priests, of Agrippa, 
and of Nero. And when the seven seals are broken, and the true 
revelation, of which this ceremony was only a poetical prelude, 
actually begins, the first great view presents the bloody scenes of 
that once Holy city, which now, by its cruelties against the cause 
which is to him as his life, — by the remorseless murder of those who 
are near and dear to him, — has lost all its ancient dominion over 
the affections and the hopes of the last apostle and all the followers 
of Christ. 

Again the mournful tragedies of earlier apostolic days pass before 
him. Again he sees his noble brother bearing his bold witness of 
Jesus ; and with him that other apostle, who in works and fate as 
much resembled the first, as in name. Their blood pouring out on 
the earth, rises to heaven, but not sooner than their spirits, — whence 
their loud witness calls down woful ruin on the blood-defiled city of 
the temple. And when that ruin falls, no regret checks the exulting 



john. 359 

tone of the thanksgiving. All that made those places holy and dear, 
is gone ; — God dwells there no more ; " the temple of God is opened 
in heaven, and there is seen in his temple the ark of his covenant," 
and all heaven swells the jubilee over the destruction of Jerusalem. 
And after this, when the apostle's view moved forward from the 
past to the future, and his eye rested on the crimes and the destiny 
of heathen Rome, the bitter remembrances of her cruelties towards 
his brethren, lifted his soul to high indignation, and he burst forth 
on her in the inspired wrath of a Son of Thunder, — 

" Every burning word he spoke, 
Full of rage, and full of grief. 

" ' Rome shall perish ; write that word 
In the blood that she has spilt. 
Rome shall perish, — fall abhorred, — 
Deep in ruin as in guilt.' " 

In respect to the learning displayed in the Apocalpyse, some most 
remarkable facts are observable. Apart from the very copious mat- 
ters borrowed from the canonical writings of the Old Testament, 
from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and other prophets, from which, as any 
reader can see, some of the most splendid imagery has been taken 
almost verbatim, — it is undeniable, that John has drawn very largely 
from a famous apocryphal Hebrew writing, called the Book op 
Enoch, which Jude has also quoted in his epistle ; and in his life it 
will be more fully described. The vision of seven stars, explained 
to be angels, — of the pair of balances in the hand of the horseman, 
after the opening of the third seal, — the river and tree of life, — the 
souls under the altar, crying for vengeance, — the angel measuring 
the city,—the thousand years of peace and holiness, — are all found 
vividly expressed in that ancient book, and had manifestly been 
made familiar to John by reading. In other ancient apocryphal 
books, are noticed some other striking and literal coincidences with 
the Apocalypse. The early Rabbinical writings are also rich in such 
parallel passages. The name of the Conqueror, " which no one 
knows but himself," — the rainbow stretched around the throne of 
God, — the fiery sceptre, — the seven angels, — the sapphire throne, — 
the cherubic four beasts, six-winged, crying Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord 
God of hosts, — the crowns of gold on the heads of the saints, which 
they cast before the throne, — the book with seven seals, — the souls 
under the altar, — the silence in heaven — the Abaddon, — the child 
caught up to God, — Satan, as the accuser of the saints, day and 
night before God, — the angel of the waters, — the hail of great weight, 
— the second death, — the new heaven and earth, — the twelve-gated 
city of precious stones, — and Rome, under the name of " Great Ba- 
bylon," — are all found in the old Jewish writings, in such distinct- 
ness as to make it palpable that John was deeply learned in Hebrew 
literature, both sacred and traditional. 

Yet all these are but the forms of expression, not of thought. The 



360 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

apostle used them, because long, constant familiarity with the writings 
in which such imagery abounded, made these sentences the most 
natural and ready vehicles of inspired emotions. The tame and 
often tedious details of those old human inventions, had no influence 
in molding the grand conceptions of the glorious revelation. This 
had a deeper, a higher, a holier source, in the spirit of eternal truth, 
— the mighty suggestions of the time-overs weeping spirit of pro- 
phecy, — the same that moved the fiery lips of those denouncers of 
the ancient Babylon, whose writings had been deeply known to him 
by years of study, and had furnished also a share of consecrated ex- 
pressions. That spirit he had caught during his long eastern resi- 
dence in the very scene of their prophecy, and its awful fulfilment. 
If the notion of his dwelling for a time with Peter in Babylon is 
well founded, as it has been above narrated, it is at once suggested 
also, that in that Chaldean city, — then the capital seat of all Hebrew 
learning, and for ages the fount of light to the votaries of Judaism, 
— he had, during the years of his stay, been led to the deep study 
and the vast knowledge of that amazing range of Talmudical and 
Cabbalistical learning, which is displayed in every part of the Apo- 
calypse. But how different all these resources in knowledge, from 
the mighty production that seemed to flow from them ! How far are 
even the sublimest conceptions of the ancient prophets, in their un- 
connected bursts and fragments of inspiration, from the harmonious 
plan, the comprehensive range, and the faultless dramatic unity, 
or rather tri-unity, of this most perfect of historical views, and of 
poetical conceptions ! 

All these coincidences, with a vast number of other learned references, highly illus- 
trative of the character of the Apocalypse, as enriched with Oriental imagery, may 
be found in Wait's very copious notes on Hug's Introduction. Adam Clarke is also 
very full indeed on the Rabbinical coincidences, and refers largely to Schottgen. 

There are many things in this view of the Apocalypse which will occasion surprise 
to many readers, but to none who are familiar with the views of the standard ortho- 
dox writers on this department of Biblical literature. The view taken in the text of 
this work, corresponds in its grand outlines, to the high authorities there named ; 
though in the minute details, it follows none exactly. Some interpretations of par- 
ticular passages are found nowhere else; but these occasional peculiarities cannot 
affect the general character of the view; and it will certainly be found accordant 
with that universally received among the Biblical scholars of Germany and England, 
belonging to the Romish, the Lutheran, the Anglican, and Wesleyan churches. 
The authority most closely followed is Dr. Hug, a Romanist professor of theology 
in an Austrian university, further explained by his translator, Dr. D. G. Wait, of the 
church of England, whose attainments in Biblical and Oriental literature, must 
place him among the most eminent of the numerous learned divines of that church. 
These views are also supported by the commentary of that splendid Orientalist, Dr. 
Adam Clarke, a work which, fortunately for the world, is fast taking the place of the 
numerous lumbering, prosing quartos, that have too long met the mind of the com- 
mon Bible reader with mere masses of dogmatic theology, where he needs the help 
of simple, clear interpretation and illustration, which has been drawn by the truly 
learned, from a minute knowledge of the language and critical history of the sacred 
writings. This noble commentary, as far as I know, is the first which favored the 
honest ground of the ancient interpretation of the Apocalypse, with common readers, 
and constitutes a noble monument to the praise of the good and learned men, who 
first threw light for such readers on the most sublime book in the sacred canon, and 
among all the writings ever penned by man,— a book which ignorant visionaries had 



JOHN. 361 

too long been suffered to overcloud and perplex for those who need the guidance of 
the learned in the interpretation of the " many things hard to be understood" in the 
volume of truth. [He has, however, so far favored common prejudices, as to give 
(on Rev. xii.,xiii.,xvii.) the long anti-papal explanations of some anonymous writer, 
(J. E. C. ;) but Dr. Clarke expressly declares that he will not be answerable for them ; 
and he says all that he dare, to discountenance them by his own notes.] The first 
book of a popular character, ever issued from the American press, explaining the 
Apocalypse according to the standard mode, is a treatise on the Millennium, by the 
learned Professor Bush, of the New York University, in which he adopts the grand 
outlines of the plan above detailed, though I have not had the opportunity of ascer- 
taining how it is, in the minor particulars. 

Probably no two commentators have ever thought exactly alike as to the proper 
interpretation of the prophecies of the Apocalypse. Indeed, in the mere particulars 
there is so much that was undoubtedly fanciful and poetical, that it does not seem 
reasonable to believe that any thing like a complete explanation of details can ever 
be reasonably hoped for. Every thing, for instance, connected with numbers, may 
most properly be left to the vagueness which befits the minor details of a poetical 
or prophetical writing. The numbers seven and ten, for instance, are often used in a 
vague way, without any very exact regard to the particulars in any case alluded to; 
for these two numbers have a sort of solemn character, in popular impressions, which 
fits them for application to subjects where the obscure, rather than the precise, is de- 
sirable, to highten effect. In some particulars, however, it is unquestionable that these 
numbers are, in the Apocalypse, literally exact. But they are often so used as to 
imply nothing very definite. 

Though Grotius, Eichhorn, Hug, Wait, (and I might have added, Hammond, Jo- 
hannsen, Rosenmuller, and Creuzer,) are named as advocating the general views 
here adopted, as to the general scope of the Apocalypse, and though all of them, with 
the great body of modern critical and learned commentators, agree in justly denying 
any reference whatever of these prophecies to the rise and progress of the Romish 
papal power, still neither all nor any one of these great authorities can be referred 
to, as supporting all of the opinions here advanced, though most of the particulars are 
advocated by the majority of the standard commentators. Hug and his translator are 
those who are most closely followed ; but the critical reader will perceive many dif- 
ferences, upon comparison. Each one of the distinguished commentators named has 
been pronounced unfortunate in making peculiar errors in the details of his particular 
exposition of the prophecy. Grotius has been justly considered very unsuccessful in 
explaining the figure of the beast as applicable to the emperor Domitian, personally ; 
and in many other details he has undoubtedly failed. But in just conception of the 
general scope of the Apocalypse, he surpassed all before his time, and has hardly 
been equaled by those who have followed him. Eichhorn, too, was misled by the 
fanciful notion of a dramatic structure of the Apocalypse. Rosenmuller has also 
fallen into great errors, in seeking to interpret the great figures of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth chapters, as applying only to the events of the civil wars of Rome, be- 
tween the partisans of Vitellius and Vespasian, and in giving the work too early a 
date. Various other errors might be traced in these and most of those who have 
attempted an explanation of the Apocalypse, — errors which serve to show the idle 
character of any attempt to reconcile all the minute poetical figures of the prophecy 
with the actual developments of history. 

With the ordinary sermonizing commentators, such as Henry, Scott, Newton, &c. 
(and in this case, Doddridge,) these rational views find no support ; but whatever 
may be their circulation among common readers, most of these writers have so little 
authority among the critical, that their opinions on a question of interpretation are of 
too trifling consequence to deserve quotation here. These, with the still more fanciful 
modern speculations of Faber, Croly, &c. are left to other hands and more appropri- 
ate places for criticism. Of all the fierce anti-papal interpretations, it is enough to 
say, that no such view was ever taken until the thirteenth century, when the Abbot 
Joachim, and the monks of the Franciscan order, in their furious quarrels with the 
Pope, first conceived the idea of applying John's denunciations of ancient pagan 
Rome to the seat of their theological foes,— modern papal Rome. The first reform- 
ers, Luther, Calvin, and Zwingle, all disdained such aids, and even rejected the book 
from the inspired canon. Yet the fanciful interpreters of later date, tell us that the 
reformation is distinctly foretold in the Apocalypse ; and the vulgar interpretation of 
chap. xiv. is, that the angel described in verse sixth, is Martin Luther himself! (who 
believed all this to be a mere human invention, and denounced the Apocalypse in the 



362 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

most violent and unmeasured terms !) and the other angels are in the same way ex- 
plained as representing the other great reformers ! The first Protestant commentator 
of any note, who adopted the Franciscan interpretation of the Apocalypse, was Beza, 
whose great worth and authority did much to make these views prevalent. The 
other advocates of the vulgar interpretation afterwards became so numerous, that 
even their names can not be given here. The best general view of the opinions of all 
before the middle of the seventeenth century, may be found in Poole's Synopsis. 

To do justice to the views here expressed on the scope of the Apocalypse, it must 
be remembered that only a general account is intended; and mainly, only those parts 
which have a distinguishable reference to the history of John's own times. Of the great 
figures used in the prophecy, it may be here summarily stated, that the dragon (chap, 
xii., xiii., &c.,) is, according to established usages in the prophetic writings of the Old 
Testament, interpreted as referring to heathenism generally, throughout the world, 
as opposed to the pure religion anciently revealed to Israel. The beast with ten 
horns (chap, xiii.) is considered as the imperial power of Rome ; and the beast with 
two horns (xiii. 11 — 17) as the Roman system of idolatry, superstition, and impos- 
ture, which, united with the imperial power, and supported by it, in turn furnished 
the immense spiritual power and influence which it possessed, for the support of 
secular tyranny. The woman in scarlet is the city of Rome, (rather than the em- 
pire,) and all which is said of it applies to it as the centre of heathenism, tyranny, 
and persecution. The general points respecting the three females and the three 
cities, are distinctly enough explained in the text of this work. 

In reference to the tone assumed in some passages of the statement in the text, per- 
haps it may be thought that more freedom has been used in characterizing opposite 
views, than is accordant with a proper moderation and hesitation. But where, in the 
denunciation of popular error, a reference to the motive of the inculcators of it would 
serve to expose most readily its nature, such a freedom of pen has been fearlessly 
adopted; and severity of language on these occasions is justified by the consideration 
of the character of the delusion which is to be overthrown. The statements too, 
which are the occasion and the support of these condemnations of vulgar notions, are 
not all drawn from the mere conceptions of the writer of this book, but from the un- 
answerable authorities of the great standards of Biblical interpretation. The oppor- 
tunity of research on this point has been too limited to allow any thing like an 
enumeration of all the great names who support this view ; but references enough 
have already been made, to show that an irresistible weight of orthodox sentiment has 
decided in favor of these views, as above given. 

Some of the minute details, particularly those not authorized by learned men, who 
have already so nearly perfected the standard view, may fall under the censure of 
the critical, as fanciful, like those so freely condemned before ; but they were written 
down because it seemed that there was, in those cases, a wonderfully minute corres- 
pondence between these passages and events in the life of John, not commonly noticed. 
Much of this view, however, may be found almost verbatim in Wait's translation of 
Hug's Introduction. 

The most satisfactory evidence of the meaning of the great mystery of the Apoca- 
lypse, is in the true interpretation of " the number of the beast," the mystic 666. In 
the Greek and Oriental languages, the letters are used to represent numbers ; and 
thence arose in mystic writings a mode of representing a name by any number, 
which would be made up by adding together the numbers for which its letters stood ; 
and so any number thus mystically given may be resolved into a name, by taking 
any word whose letters, when added together, will make up that sum. Now the word 
Latinus, (Aareu'os-,) meaning the Latin or Roman empire, (for the names are synony- 
mous,) is made up of Greek letters representing the numbers whose sum is 666. 
Thus, A-30, o-l, r-300, e-5, £-10, *-50, o-70, s-200— all which, added up, make just 
666. What confirms this view is, that Irenaeus says, " John himself told those who 
saw him face to face, that this was what he meant by the number;" and Irenaeus as- 
sures us that he himself heard this from the personal acquaintances of John. (See 
Wait's note. Trans, of Hug's Introd. II. 626—629, note.) 

In Dr. Adam's Clarke's commentary, (on Rev. xiii. 18,) a new and ingenious so- 
lution is given, not at all inconsistent with the general view above supported. The 
number 666 can in the same way be resolved into 'H AarTv n /? a a i\e,i a — " The 
Roman Empire." The only important objections to this are— its opposition to that 
interpretation which Irenaeus received from John's personal acquaintances, as the 
apostle's own explanation of the number, — and its omission of the letter e in the Greek 
form of the name of the Roman empire, the long i in such cases being always repre- 



john. 363 

sented by the diphthong st. (See Rosenmtiller in Apocal. xiii. 18.) The expression, 
" herein is wisdom," it should be observed, is an old Rabbinical formula, often used 
to announce some mystery of this sort, which the learned reader was to search out. 
It is remarkable, also, that the number 666 can in like manner be made up by the 
numerals of the Hebrew word mom (Romith,) which is the Hebrew form of the name 
of Rome. 

HIS LAST RESIDENCE IN EPHESUS. 

The date of John's return from Patmos is capable of more exact 
proof than any other point in the chronology of his later years. 
The death of Domitian, who fell at last under the daggers of his 
own previous friends, now driven to this measure by their danger 
from his murderous tyranny, happened in the sixteenth year of his 
own reign, (A. D. 96.) On the happy consummation of this de- 
sirable revolution, Cocceius Nerva, who had himself suffered ban- 
ishment under the suspicious tyranny of Domitian, was now re- 
called from his exile, to the throne of the Caesars ; and mindful of 
his own late calamity, he commenced his just and blameless reign 
by an auspicious act of clemency, restoring to their country and 
home all who had been banished by the late emperor. Among 
these, John was doubtless included ; for the decree was so compre- 
hensive that he could hardly have been excluded from the benefit 
of its provisions ; and to give this view the strongest confirmation, 
it is specified by the heathen historians of Rome, that this sena- 
torial decree of general recall did not except even those who had 
been found guilty of religious offenses. Christian writers, also, 
of a respectable antiquity, state distinctly that the Apostle John 
was recalled from Patmos by this decree of Nerva. Some of the 
early ecclesiastical historians, indeed, have pretended that this per- 
secution against the Christians was suspended by Domitian him- 
self, on some occasion of repentance ; but critical examination and 
a comparison of higher authorities, both sacred and profane, have 
disproved the notion. The data above mentioned, therefore, fix 
the return of John from banishment, in the first year of Nerva, 
which, according to the most approved chronology, corresponds 
with A. D. 96. This date is useful also, in affording ground for 
a reasonable conjecture respecting the comparative age of John. 
He could not have been near as old as Jesus Christ, since the at- 
tainment of the age of ninety-six must imply an extreme of in- 
firmity necessarily accompanying it, unless a miracle of most 
unparalleled character is supposed ; and no one can venture to 
require belief in a pretended miracle, of which no sacred record 
bears testimony. If he was, on his return from Patmos, as well 

48 



364 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

as during his residence there, able to produce writings of such 
power and such clear expression, as those which are generally 
attributed to these periods, it seems reasonable to suppose that he 
was many years younger than Jesus Christ. The common Chris- 
tian era, also, fixing the birth of Christ some years too late, this 
circumstance will require a still larger subtraction from this num- 
ber, for the age of John. 

HIS GOSPEL. 

The united testimony of early writers who allude to this matter, 
is — that John wrote his gospel long after the completion and circula- 
tion of the writings of the three first evangelists. Some early testi- 
mony on the subject dates from the end of the second century, and 
specifies that John, observing that in the other gospels those things 
were copiously related which concern the humanity of Christ, wrote 
a spiritual gospel, at the earnest solicitations of his friends and disci- 
ples, to explain in more full detail the divinity of Christ. This ac- 
count is certainly accordant with what is observable of the structure 
and tendency of this gospel ; but much earlier testimony than this, 
distinctly declares that John's design in writing was to attack certain 
heresies on the same point specified in the former statement. The 
Nicolaitans and the followers of Cerinthus, in particular, who were 
both Gnostical sects, are mentioned as having become obnoxious to 
the purity of the truth, by inculcating notions which directly attack- 
ed the true divinity and real Messiahship of Jesus. The earliest 
heresy that is known to have arisen in the Christian churches, is 
that of the Gnostics, who, though divided among themselves by some 
minor distinctions, yet all agreed in certain grand errors, against 
which this gospel appears to have been particularly directed. The 
great system of mystical philosophy from which all these errors 
sprung, did not derive its origin from Christianity, but existed in 
the East long before the time of Christ ; yet after the wide diffusion 
of his doctrines, many who had been previously imbued with this 
Oriental mysticism, became converts to the new faith. But not 
rightly apprehending the simplicity of the faith which they had par- 
tially adopted, they soon began to contaminate its purity by the 
addition of strange doctrines, drawn from their philosophy, which 
were totally inconsistent with the great revelations made by Christ 
to his apostles. The prime suggestion of the mischief, and one, 
alas ! which has not at this moment ceased to distract the churches 
of Christ, was a set of speculations, introduced " to account for the 
origin and existence of evil in the world" — which seemed to them 
inconsistent with the perfect work of an all-wise and benevolent 
being. Overleaping all those minor grounds of dispute which are 
now occupying the attention of modern controversialists, they attack- 
ed the very basis of religious truthj and adopted the notion that the 



john. 365 

world was not created by the supreme God himself, but by a being 
of inferior rank, called by them the Demiurgus, whom they consider- 
ed deficient in benevolence and in wisdom, and as thus being the 
occasion of the evil so manifest in the works of his hands. This 
Demiurgus they considered identical with the God of the Jews, as 
revealed in the Old Testament. Between him and the Supreme 
Deity they placed an order of beings, to which they assigned the 
names of the " Only-begotten," " the Word," " the Light," " the Life," 
&c. ; and among these superior beings was Christ, — a distinct ex- 
istence from Jesus, whom they declared a mere man, the son of 
Mary, but acquiring a divine character by being united at his bap- 
tism to the Divinity, Christ, who departed from him at his death. 
Most of the Gnostics utterly rejected the law of Moses ; but Cerin- 
thus is said to have respected some parts of it. 

A full account of the prominent characteristics of the Gnostical system may be 
found in Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, illustrated by valuable annotations in Dr. 
Murdock's translation of that work. The scholar will also find an elaborate account 
of this, with other Oriental mysticisms, in Beausobre's Historie de Manichee et du 
Manicheisme. J. D. Michaelis, in his Introduction to the N. T., (vol. III. c. ii. § 5,) 
is also copious on these tenets, in his account of John's gospel. He refers also to 
Walch's History of Heretics. Hug's Introduction also gives a very full account of 
the peculiarities of Cerinthus, as connected with the scope of this gospel. Introd. vol. 
II. §§ 49—53, of the original, §§ 48—52, Wait's translation. 

In connexion with John's living at Ephesus, a story became afterwards current 
about his meeting him on one occasion and openly expressing a personal abhorrence 
of him. " Irenaeus (adv. Haer. III. c. 4. p. 140) states from Polycarp, that John once 
going into a bath at Ephesus, discovered Cerinthus, the heretic, there; and leaping 
out of the bath he hastened away, saying he was afraid lest the building should fall 
on him, and crush him along with the heretic." Conyers Middleton, in his Miscel- 
laneous works, has attacked this story, in a treatise upon this express point. (This 
is in the edition of his works in four or five volumes, quarto ; but I cannot quote the 
volume, because it is not now at hand.) Lardner also discusses it. (Vol. I. p. 325, 
vol. II. p. 555, 4to. ed.) 

There can be no better human authority on any subject connected with the life of 
John, than that of Irenaeus of Lyons, (A. D. 160,) who had in his youth lived in 
Asia, where he was personally acquainted with Polycarp, the disciple and intimate 
friend of John, the apostle. His words are, " John, the disciple of the Lord, wishing 
by the publication of his gospel to remove that error which had been sown among 
men, by Cerinthus, and much earlier, by those called Nicolaitans, who are a shoot 
of science, (or the Gnosis,) falsely so called ; — and that he might both confound them, 
and convince them that there is but one God, who made all things by his word, and 
not, as they say, one who was the Creator, and another who was the Father of our 
Lord." (Heres. lib. III. c. xi.) In another passage he says, — " As John, the disciple 
of the Lord, confirms, saying, 'But these are written that you may believe that Jesus 
is the Son of God, and that believing, you may have eternal life in his name,' — 
guarding against these blasphemous notions, which divide the Lord, as far as they 
can, by saying that he was made of two different substances." (Heres. lib. III. c. xvi.) 
Michaelis, in his Introduction on John, discusses this passage, and illustrates its true 
application. 

The first-quoted passage from Irenaeus relating to this sect, contains a remarkable 
Latin word, " vulsio," not found in any other author, and not explained at all in the 
common dictionaries. That miserable, unsatisfactory mass of words, Ainsworth's 
Thesaurus, does not contain it, and I was left to infer the meaning from the theme, 
vello, and it was therefore, in the first edition, translated "fragment" — a meaning not 
inconsistent with its true sense. Since that was printed, a learned friend, to whom 
the difficulty was mentioned, on searching for the word in better dictionaries, found 
it. in Gesner's Thesaurus, distinctly quoted from the very passage, with a very satis- 
factory explanation of its exact meaning. Gesner's account of it is as follows: 



366 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

" Vulsio, Irenaeus, iii. 11, Nicolaitae sunt vulsio ejus, i. e. surculus inde enatus, et 
revulsus, stolo, d-iroppw^. Secta una ex altera velut pullulavit" The meaning therefore 
is, a "sucker," " a shoot or scion, springing out of the root or side of the stock," and 
the expression in this passage may therefore be translated, " The Nicolaitans are a 
slip or sprig of the old stock of the Chwsis." And as Gesner happily explains it, " One 
sect, as it were, sprouted up from another." 

The word " scientia" in this wretched Latin translation, is quoted along with the 
adjacent words from Paul's second epistle to Timothy, (vi. 20,) where he is warning 
him against the delusions of the Gnostics, and speaks of "the dogmas of the Gnosis," 
(yj/oStns,) translated " science," but the word is evidently technical in this passage. 
Irenaeus no doubt quoted it in the Greek; but his ignorant translator, not perceiving 
the peculiar force of the word, translated it " scientia," losing all the sense of the ex- 
pression. The common translations of the Bible have done the same, in the passage 
in 2 Timothy vi. 20. 

It appears well established by respectable historical testimony, that 
Cerinthus was contemporary with John at Ephesus, and that he had 
already made alarming progress in the diffusion of these and other 
peculiar errors, during the life of the apostle. John therefore, now 
in the decline of life, on the verge of the grave, would wish to bear 
his inspired testimony against the advancing heresy ; and the occa- 
sion, scope, and object of his gospel, are very clearly illustrated by a 
reference to the circumstances. The peculiar use of terms, more 
particularly in the first part, — terms which have caused so much 
perplexity and controversy among those who knew nothing about 
the peculiar technical significations of these mystical phrases, as they 
were limited by the philosophical application of them in the system 
of the Gnostics, — is thus shown in a historical light, highly valuable 
in preventing a mis-interpretation among common readers. This 
view of the great design of John's gospel will be found to coincide 
exactly with the results of a minute examination of almost all parts 
of it, and gives new force to many passages, by revealing the par- 
ticular error at which they were aimed. The details of these coin- 
cidences cannot be given here, but have been most satisfactorily 
traced out, at great length, by the labors of the great modern ex- 
egetical theologians, who have occupied volumes with the elucida- 
tion of these points. The whole gospel, indeed, is not so absorbed 
in the unity of this plan, as to neglect occasions for supplying general 
historical deficiencies in the narratives of the preceding evangelists. 
An account is thus given of two journeys to Jerusalem, of which no 
mention had ever been made in former records, while hardly any 
notice whatever is taken of the incidents of the wanderings in Gali- 
lee, which occupy so large a portion of former narratives, — except 
so far as they are connected with those instructions of Christ which 
accord with the great object of this gospel. The scene of the great 
part of John's narrative is laid in Judea, more particularly in and 
about Jerusalem ; and on the parting instructions given by Christ to 
his disciples, just before his crucifixion, he is very full ; yet, even in 
those, he seizes hold mainly of those things which fall most directly 
within the scope of his work. But throughout the whole, the grand 
object is seen to be, the presentation of Jesus as the Messiah, the son 



john. 367 

of the living, eternal God, containing within himself the Life, the 
Light, the Only-begotten, the Word, and all the personified excel- 
lences, to which the Gnostics had, in their mystic idealism, given a 
separate existence. It thus differs from all the former gospels, in 
the circumstance, that its great object and its general character is 
not historical, but dogmatical, — not universal in its direction and 
tendency, but aimed at the establishment of particular doctrines, and 
the subversion of particular errors. , 

Another class of sectaries, against whose errors John wrote in this 
gospel, were the Sabians, or disciples of John the Baptist ; for some 
of those who had followed him during his preaching, did not after- 
wards turn to the greater Teacher and Prophet, whom he pointed out 
as the one of whom he was the forerunner ; and these disciples of 
the great Baptizer, after his death, taking the pure doctrines which 
he taught as a basis, made up a peculiar religious system, by large 
additions from the same Oriental mysteries from which the Gnostics 
had drawn their remarkable principles. They acknowledged Jesus 
Christ as a being of high order, and designate him in their religious 
books as the " Disciple of Life ;" while John the Baptist, himself 
somewhat inferior, is called the " Apostle of Light," — and is said 
to have received his peculiar glorified transfiguration, from a body 
of flesh to a body of light, from Jesus, at the time of his baptism in 
the Jordan ; and yet is represented as distinguished from the " Dis- 
ciple of Life," by possessing this peculiar attribute of Light. 

This mystical error is distinctly characterized in the first chapter 
of this gospel, and is there met by the direct assertions, that in Jesus 
Christ, the Word, and the God, was not only life, but that the life 
itself was the light of men ; — and that John the Baptist u was not 
the Light, but was only sent to bear witness of the Light ;" and 
again, with all the reiterative earnestness of an old man, the aged 
writer repeats the assertion, that " this was the true Light, which 
enlightens every man that comes into the world." Against these 
same sectaries, the greater part of the first chapter is directed dis- 
tinctly, and the whole tendency of the work throughout, is, in a 
marked manner, opposed to their views. With them, too, John had 
had a local connexion, by his residence in Ephesus, where, as it is 
distinctly specified in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul had found the 
peculiar disciples of John the Baptist long before, on his first visit to 
that city ; and had successfully preached to some of them the religion 
of Christ, which before was a strange and a new thing to them. 
The whole tendency and scope of this gospel, indeed, as directed 
against these two prominent classes of heretics, both Gnostics and 
Sabians, are fully and distinctly summed up in the conclusion of the 
twentieth chapter : — "These things are written, that ye might believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that in believing on 
him, ye might have life through his name." 
This view of the design of John's gospel, I adopted long since, on a perusal of John 



368 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

David Michaelis's Introduction, which gives the evidences in favor of this view so 
fully and fairly, that the reflexion of years, conjoined with the reading of the ablest 
statements and defenses of opposite opinions, has not induced me to change. These 
views, I know, have been powerfully opposed by able, critical, and truly learned 
writers ; and probably there is no one who has more ably supported these opposite 
views, than Charles Christian Tittman, of Dresden, who, in his Meletemata Sacra in 
Evang. Joann. has maintained that in none of the writings of the New Testament are 
there any traces of the existence of either the Gnostic or the Sabian sect. He de- 
nies altogether that the sect now existing in the East under the latter name, are in 
any way connected with the disciples of John the Baptist, and maintains that they 
are merely a Muhammedan sect, for the proof of which he refers to the opinions and 
statements of Niebuhr, Tychsen, Adler, and Paulus, the first-mentioned writer being 
the traveler whose accounts afforded the basis of modern speculations upon this sub- 
ject. He slights also the evidence of the existence of the followers of John as a dis- 
tinct sect, and claims that there is no historical testimony of their continuance through 
the earlier ages of Christianity. 

As to Niebuhr's evidence that the Sabians consider Muhammed as a prophet, no 
writer has ever denied it ; and there is no difficulty whatever in the fact that the sup- 
posed followers of John the Baptist, living without any true knowledge of the clear 
light of Christian revelation, gave themselves up to the delusions of the Muhamme- 
dan faith, grafting that upon their previous incomplete religious creed. Muhammed 
did not require of any believer in the Old Testament to renounce his previous faith, 
nor is even the Christian convert to Islamism required to disown the divine au- 
thority and inspiration of John the Baptist, of Jesus Christ, or of his apostles. All 
over the Muhammedan world, from Western Africa to the farthest East, John and 
Issa (Jesus) are acknowledged as the prophets of God, and the Koran requires them 
to be reverenced as such. The followers of John the Baptist, therefore, would not 
be required, in becoming Muhammedans, to renounce a single article of their pre- 
vious faith, but merely to adopt Muhammed as the last and greatest prophet of God ; 
nor would they cease to be Sabians, in becoming Moslems. 

The evidence in the New Testament, of the existence of the followers of John the 
Baptist as a sect, is also very unjustifiably slighted by Tittman. From passages in 
the gospels, it is evident that during the life of John, there were many who still attach- 
ed themselves to him as a divine teacher, in preference to following Jesus, and many 
among the people who, as well as the king, regarded him as the greatest of prophets. 
(Matt. xi. 2—19. xiv. 1, 2. Mark vi. 14—29. Luke vii. 18—30. ix. 7—9. John iii. 
25 — 36.) From the last passage it further appears that some jealousy existed among 
them, of the progressive fame and influence of Jesus. It is, by most commentators on 
the Acts of the Apostles, also considered incontestable that many of the disciples of 
John did remain distinct and separate after the ascension of Jesus, not joining them- 
selves to the apostles, or receiving the essential doctrines of Christianity, mostly in- 
deed through ignorance. (See Poole, Kuinoel, and Bloomfield, on Acts xviii. 24—26. 
xix. 1 — 7.) Apollos, though so well instructed in the way of the Lord, as far as it 
could be learned by the teaching of John, was yet so very ignorant of true Christiani- 
ty, as to need very careful indoctrination before he could be safely trusted with the 
work of the gospel. It should be particularly noticed also, that he as well as the 
other disciples of John, soon after mentioned, were all at Epkesus— the very place 
where John wrote his gospel, and where the local existence of such a sect is supposed 
to have been an occasion and motive for his writing it. This coincidence is one 
which adds much to the probability of the view here taken. Though twelve of these 
disciples readily adopted the truth, as made known to them by Paul, there is no ac- 
count of the conversion of any others among them ; and doubtless many still preferred 
their ^previous half- knowledge of the truth to the full light of the gospel. 

There is also a passage in one of the spurious writings attributed to Clement, which 
speaks of this sect. It is true that these are not so early as they claim to be, and de- 
serve no confidence in general ; but it is beyond all question that they were written 
before the year 400 of the Christian era; and the merest reference to the followers of 
John the Baptist, as a sect, is enough to show that in the fourth century the existence 
of such a sect was believed, and apparently well-known. This is a still more im- 
portant coincidence, and one which no one has ever pretended to account for. (See 
dementis Romani Recognitiones, I. § 54, 60.) 

The books now in use among the Sabians, are remarkably characterized by the 
very frequent recurrence of those peculiar expressions with which John's gospel so 
much abounds,— such as Life, Light, &c. ; and the great errors which they inculcate 



john. 369 

are just such as the prominent doctrines continually held out in John's gospel must 
have been especially calculated to overthrow. The rank and character which they 
attribute to Jesus, and the qualities which they claim that John the Baptist had in a 
superior degree, are quite directly opposite the great statements of John's gospel, and 
remind the reader, at once, of the peculiar phraseology of the evangelist. (Michaelis 
has given large extracts from these books, in his Introduction to the New Testament, 
— on John's gospel ; and to him the reader is referred for the details of the argument.) 
As to the fact that this sect is so little noticed by the ancient ecclesiastical writers, 
it is sufficient to reply, that its existence could not have been very widely known, 
since by all accounts it appears not to have existed beyond the neighborhood around 
Ephesus and certain sections of Palestine and the farther East. John had doubtless 
had opportunities of becoming acquainted with these sectaries in the regions where 
they originally arose, and where they are still found ; and he was doubtless thus pre- 
pared to attack their errors with such success at Ephesus, that the sect soon ceased to 
exist there. (Besides Michaelis, several great names in theology support this view. 
Wolzogen, Barkey, Overbeck, Storr, and Norberg, are quoted and disputed by Titt- 
man.) Tittman also attacks the view above taken, that John wrote with a special 
reference to the errors of the Gnostics. His most elaborate criticism of this point is 
in a different work from that above quoted. ( Tractatus de Vestigiis Gnosticorum in 
N. T. frustra quaesitis.) Not having seen the original work, I cannot here pretend to 
do full justice to Tittman's reasons, which he alludes to only in general terms in his 
Meletemata on John. But in defense and explanation of the view here adopted on the 
high authority of Michaelis, Hug, and the majority of the most learned modern 
critics and commentators, it may be well to remark, that by the Gnosis, or Gnostical 
system, is not understood that complete scheme of mysticism that attained such alarm- 
ing strength and perfection in the second and third centuries, but the first floating 
errors of this sort that infected some of the earliest beginnings of Christian theology. 
This system was doubtless originally of eastern origin, and during the first century 
appeared in the various forms of the Nicolaitan, the Cerinthian, and other heresies 
without name, which are the subject of definite allusion in the New Testament, — 
coming from the various sources of Jewish Essenism and Cabbalism, Oriental Zoro- 
astrism, Alexandrine philosophy and Therapeutism, but all characterized by one 
general spirit of imaginative mysticism, which gradually advancing in spite of 
apostolic teachings, at last overspread with a temporary cloud of error large portions 
of the eastern churches. (See Murdock's Mosheim, I. i. 2. chap. i. § 4, note, (7,) also 
chap, v.) 

As to the place where this gospel was written, there is a very de- 
cided difference of opinion among high authorities, both ancient and 
modern, — some affirming it to have been composed in Patmos, daring 
his exile, and others in Ephesus, before or after his banishment. 
The best authority, however, seems to decide in favor of Ephesus, 
as the place ; and this view seems to be most generally adopted in 
modern times. Even those who suppose it to have been written in 
Patmos, however, grant that it was first given to the Christian world 
in Ephesus, — the weight of early authority being very decided on 
this latter point. This distinction between the place of composition 
and the place of publication, is certainly very reasonable on some 
accounts, and is supported by ancient authorities of dubious date ; 
but there are important objections to the idea of the composition of 
both this and the Apocalypse, in the same place, during about one 
year, which was the period of his exile. There seem to be many 
things in the style of the gospel which would show it to be a work 
written at a different period, and under different circumstances from 
the Apocalypse ; and some Biblical critics, of high standing, have 
thought that the gospel bore marks in its style, which characterize it 
as a production of a much older man than the author of the energetic, 



370 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

and almost furious denunciations of the Apocalypse, must have been. 
In this case, where ancient authority is so little decisive, it is but fair 
to leave the point to be determined by evidence thus connected with 
the date, and drawn from the internal character of the composition 
itself, — a sort of evidence, on which the latest moderns are far more 
capable of deciding, than the most ancient, and the sagest of the 
Fathers. The date itself is of course inseparably connected with 
the determination of the place, and like that, must be pronounced 
very uncertain. The greatest probability about both these points is, 
that it was written at Ephesus, after his return from Patmos ; for 
the idea of its being produced before his banishment, during his first 
residence in Asia, has long ago been exploded ; nor is there any late 
writer of authority on these points, who pretends to support this un- 
founded notion. 

HIS FIRST EPISTLE. 

All that has been said on the character and the objects of the gos- 
pel, may be exactly applied to this very similar production. So 
completely does it resemble John's gospel, in style, language, doc- 
trines, and tendencies, that even a superficial reader might be ready 
to pronounce, on a common examination, that they were written in 
the same circumstances and with the same object. This has been 
the conclusion at which the most learned critics have arrived, after 
a full investigation of the peculiarities of both, throughout ; and the 
standard opinion now is, that they were both written at the same 
time and for the same persons. Some reasons have been given by 
high critical authority, for supposing that they were both written at 
Patmos, and sent together to Ephesus, — the epistle serving as a preface, 
dedication, and accompaniment of the gospel, to those for whom it 
was intended, and commending the prominent points in it to their par- 
ticular attention. This beautiful and satisfactory view of the object 
and occasion of the epistle, may certainly be adopted with great pro- 
priety and justice ; but in regard to the places of its composition and 
direction, a different view is much more probable, as well as more 
consistent with the notion, already presented above, of the date and 
occasion of the gospel. It is very reasonable to suppose that the epistle 
was written some years after John's return to Ephesus, — that it was 
intended (along with the gospel, for the churches of Asia generally, 
to whom John hoped to make an apostolical pastoral visit, shortly) 
to confirm them in the faith, as he announces in the conclusion. 
There is not a single circumstance in gospel or epistle, which should 
lead any one to believe that they were directed to Ephesus in par- 
ticular. On the contrary, the total absence of any thing like a per- 
sonal or local direction to the epistle, shows the justice of its common 
title, that it is a "general epistle," a circular, in short, to all the 
churches under his special apostolic supervision, — for whose par- 
ticular dangers, errors, and necessities, he had written the gospel 



JOHN. 371 

just sent forth, and to whom he now minutely commended that 
work, in the very opening words of his letter, referring as palpably 
and undeniably to his gospel, as any words can express. " Of that 
which { was from the beginning, of the Word,'' which 1 have heard, 
which I have seen with my eyes, which I have looked upon, which 
my hands have handled — of the Word of Life" &c. ; particularizing 
with all the minute verbosity of old age, his exact knowledge of the 
facts which he gives in his gospel, assuring them thus of the accura- 
cy of his descriptions. The question concerns his reputation for 
fidelity as a historian ; and it is easy to see, therefore, why he should 
labor thus to impress on his readers his important personal advan- 
tages for knowing exactly all the facts he treats of, and all the doc- 
trines which he gives at such length in the discourses of Christ. 
Again and again he says, " I write," and " 1 have written," recapitu- 
lating the sum of the doctrines which he has designed to inculcate ; 
and he particularizes still farther that he has written to all classes 
and ages, from the oldest to the youngest, intending his gospel for 
the benefit of all. t: 1 have written to you, fathers" — % unto you, 
young men," — " unto you, little children," &c. What else can this 
imply, than a dedication of the work concerning " the Word," to 
all stations and ages, — to the whole of the Christian communities, 
to whom he commits and recommends his writings ; — as he writes 
" to the fathers. — because they know him who was from the begin- 
ning," — in the same way " to the young men, because they are con- 
stant, and the Word of God dwells in them," and " that the doctrine 
they have received may remain unchangeable in them," and " on 
account of those who would seduce them." He recapitulates 
all the leading doctrines of his gospel, — the Messiahship and the Di- 
vinity of Jesus, — his Unity, and identity with the divine abstractions 
of the Gnostic theology. Here too, he inculcates and renewedly 
urges the great feeling of Christian brotherly love, which so decidedly 
characterizes the discourses of Jesus, as reported in his gospel. So 
perfect was the connexion of origin and design, between the gospel 
and this accompanying letter, that they were anciently placed to- 
gether, the epistle immediately following the gospel ; as is indubita- 
bly proved by certain marks in ancient manuscripts. 

It was mentioned, in connexion with a former part of John's life, that this epistle 
is quoted by Augustin and others, under the title of the epistle to the Parthians. It 
seems very probable that this may have been also addressed to those churches in the 
East, about Babylon, which had certainly suffered much under the attacks of these 
same mystical heretics. It is explained, however, by some, that this was an acciden- 
tal corruption in the copying- of the Greek. — The second epistle was quoted by Clemens 
Alexandrinus, under the title of " the epistle to the virgins" napdivovs, (parthenous,) 
which, as some of the modern critics say, must have been accidentally changed to 
rrdpdovs, (parthous,) by dropping some of the syllables, and afterwards transferred to 
the first ( / ) as more appropriate ; — a perfectly unauthorized conjecture, and directly 
in the face of all rules of criticism. This ancient and remarkable testimony, there- 
fore, must stand as good evidence, notwithstanding this absurdly trifling conjecture; 
and it is another interesting trace of that eastward movement of the apostles which 
research enables a critical historian to bring to light from these incidental references 
49 



372 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

to it among the Fathers, as well as from passages in the New Testament. It offers 
proof also of the important fact that this epistle, and, of course, the gospel accompa- 
nying it, were addressed not only to the Christians of Ionic Asia, among whom John 
then resided, but also to those of Parthia, among whom he had long labored, and 
with whose spiritual wants and errors he must have been well acquainted. The 
views already taken of the origin of the Gnostics, show that the eastern regions, where 
John had previously resided, were the great sources of that mysticism; and thus to 
both Eastern and Western Gnostical heretics, as well as to both Eastern and Western 
Sabians, or disciples of John the Baptist, the gospel and its accompanying epistle 
were pointedly and properly addressed. 

THE SECOND AND THIRD EPISTLES. 

These are both evidently private letters from John to two of his 
intimate personal friends, of whose circumstances nothing whatever 
being known, except what is therein contained, the notice of these 
brief writings must necessarily be brief also. They are both honor- 
ably referred to, as entertainers of those servants of Jesus Christ 
who travel from place to place, and seem to have been residents in 
some of the Asian cities within John's apostolic circuit, and probably 
received him kindly and reverently into their houses on his tours of 
duty ; and them he was about to visit again shortly. The second 
epistle is directed to a Christian female, who, being designated by the 
very honorable title of " lady? was evidently a person of rank ; and 
from the remark towards the conclusion, about the proper objects of 
her hospitality, it is plain that she must have been also a person of 
some property. Mention is made of her children as also objects of 
warm affection to the aged apostle ; and as no other member of her 
family is noticed, it is reasonable to conclude that she was a widow. 
The contents of this short letter are a mere transcript, almost ver- 
batim, of some important points in the first, inculcating Christian 
love, and watchfulness against deceivers ; — (no doubt the Gnostical 
heretics, — the Cerinthians and Nicolaitans.) He apologizes for the 
shortness of the letter, by saying that he hopes shortly to visit her ; 
and ends by communicating the affectionate greetings of her sister's 
children, then residents in Ephesus, or whatever city was then the 
home of John. The third epistle is directed to Gaius, (that is, 
Caius, a Roman name,) whose hospitality is commemorated with 
great particularity and gratitude, in behalf of Christian strangers, 
probably preachers, traveling in his region. Another person, named 
Diotrephes, (a Greek by name, and probably one of the partizans of 
Cerinthus,) is mentioned as maintaining a very different character, 
who, so far from receiving the ministers of the gospel sent by the 
apostle, had even excluded from Christian fellowship those who did 
exercise this hospitality to the messengers of the apostle. John 
speaks threateningly of him, and closes with the same apology for 
the shortness of the letter, as in the former. There are several per- 
sons, named Gaius, or Caius, mentioned in apostolic history ; but 
there is no reason to suppose that any of them was identical with 
this man, whose name was very common. 



john. 373 

For these lucid views of the objects of all these epistles, I am mainly indebted to 
Hug's Introduction, to whom belongs the merit of expressing them with this distinct- 
ness, though others before him have not been far from apprehending their simple 
force. Michaelis, for instance, is very satisfactory, and much more full on some 
points. In respect to the place whence they were written, Hug appears to be wholly 
in the wrong, in referring them to Patmos, just before John's return. Not the least 
glimmer of a reason appears why all the writings of John should be huddled together 
in his exile. I can make nothing whatever of the learned commentator's reason 
about the deficiency of " pen, ink, and paper," (mentioned in Epist. ii. 12, and iii. 13,) 
as showing that John must still have been in " that miserable place," Patmos. The 
idea seems to require a great perversion of simple words, which do not seem to be 
capable of any other sense than that adopted in the above account. 

THE TRADITIONS OF HIS LIFE IN EPHESUS. 

To this period of his life are referred those stories of his mira- 
cles and actions, with which the ancient fictitious apostolic narra- 
tives are so crowded, — John being the subject of more ancient 
traditions than any other apostle. Some of those are so respecta- 
ble and reasonable in their character, as to deserve a place here, 
although none of them are of such antiquity as to deserve any 
confidence, on points where fiction has often been so busy. The 
first which follows is altogether the most ancient of all apostolic 
stories, which are not in the New Testament ; and even if it is a 
work of fiction, it has such merits as a mere tale, that it would be 
injustice to the readers of this book, not to give them the whole 
story, from the most ancient and best authorized record. 

It is related that John, after returning from banishment, was often called 
to the neighboring churches to organize them, or to heal divisions, and to 
ordain elders. On one occasion, after ordaining a bishop, he committed to 
his particular care and instruction a fine young man, whom he saw in the 
congregation, charging the bishop, before the whole church, to be faithful 
to him. The bishop accordingly took the young man into his house, 
watched over him, and instructed him, and at length baptized him. After 
this, viewing the young man as a confirmed Christian, the bishop relaxed 
his watchfulness, and allowed the youth greater liberties. He soon got 
into bad company, in which his talents made him conspicuous, and pro- 
ceeding from one step to another, he finally became the leader of a band of 
robbers. In this state of things, John came to visit the church, and pre- 
sently called upon the bishop to bring forward his charge. The bishop 
replied that he was dead — dead to God; — and was now in the mountains, 
a captain of banditti. John ordered a horse to be brought immediately to 
the church door, and a guide to attend him ; and mounting, he rode full 
speed in search of the gang. He soon fell in with some of them, who 
seized him, to be carried to their head quarters. John told them that this 
was just what he wanted, for he came on purpose to see their captain. As 
they drew near, the captain stood ready to receive them ; but on seeing 
John, he drew back, and began to make off John pursued with all the 
speed his aged limbs would permit, crying out, " My son, why do you run 
from your own father, who is unarmed and aged ? Pity me, my son, and 
do not fear. There is yet hope of your life. I will intercede for you ; 



374 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

and, if necessary, will cheerfully suffer death for you, as the Lord did for 
us. Stop, — believe what I say; Christ hath sent me." The young man 
stopped, looked on the ground, and then throwing down his arms, came 
trembling, and with sobs and tears, begged for pardon. The apostle as- 
sured him of the forgiveness of Christ ; and conducting him back to the 
church, there fasted and prayed with him, and at length procured his 
absolution. 

Another story, far less probable, is related in the ancient martyrologies, 
and by the counterfeit Abdias. Craton, a philosopher, to make a display 
of contempt for riches, had persuaded two wealthy young men, his follow- 
ers, to invest all their property in two very costly pearls ; and then, in the 
presence of a multitude, to break them, and pound them to dust. John 
happening to pass by, at the close of the transaction, censured this destruc- 
tion of property, which might better have been given in alms to the poor. 
Craton told him, if he thought so, he might miraculously restore the dust 
to solid pearls again, and have them for charitable purposes. The apostle 
gathered up the particles, and holding them in his hand, prayed fervently 
that they might become solid pearls, and when the people said "Amen," 
it took place. By this miracle, Craton, and all his followers, were con- 
verted to Christianity ; and the two young men took back the pearls, sold 
them, and then distributed the avails in charity. Influenced by this ex- 
ample, two other young men of distinction, Atticus and Eugenius, sold 
their estates, and distributed the avails among the poor. For a time, they 
followed the apostle, and possessed the power of working miracles. But, 
one day, being at Pergamus, and seeing some well-dressed young men, 
glittering in their costly array, they began to regret that they had sold all 
their property, and deprived themselves of the means of making a figure 
in the world. John read in their countenances and behavior the state of 
their minds ; and after drawing from them an avowal of their regret, he 
bid them bring him each a bundle of straight rods, and a parcel of smooth 
stones from the sea shore. They did so, — and the apostle, after converting 
the rods into gold, and the stones into pearls, bid them take them, and sell 
them, and redeem their alienated estates, if they chose. At the same time, 
he plainly warned them, that the consequence would be the eternal loss of 
their souls. While he continued his long and pungent discourse, a funeral 
procession came along. John now prayed, and raised the dead man to 
life. The resuscitated person began to describe the invisible world, and so 
graphically painted to Atticus and Eugenius the greatness of their loss, 
that they were melted into contrition. The apostle ordered them to do 
penance thirty days, — till the golden rods should become wood, and the 
pearls become stones. They did so, and were afterwards very distinguish- 
ed saints. 

Another story, of about equal merit, is told by the same authority. 
While John continued his successful ministry at Ephesus, the idolaters 
there, in a tumult, dragged him to the temple of Diana, and insisted on his 
sacrificing to the idol. He warned all to come out of the temple, and then, 
by prayer, caused it to fall to the ground, .and become a heap of ruins. 
Then, addressing the pagans on the spot, he converted twelve thousand of 
them in one day. But Aristodemus, the pagan high priest, could not be 
convinced, till John had drunken poison without harm, by which two 
malefactors were killed instantly, and also raised the malefactors to life. 



john. 375 

This resuscitation he rendered the more convincing to Aristodemus, by- 
making him the instrument of it. The apostle pulled off his tunic, and 
gave it to Aristodemus. " And what is this for ?" said the high priest. 
" To cure you of your infidelity," was the reply. " But how is your tunic 
to cure me of infidelity'?" " Go," said the apostle, " and spread it upon the 
dead bodies, and say, ' The apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ hath sent me 
to resuscitate you, in his name, that all may know, that life and death are 
the servants of Jesus Christ, my Lord.' " By this miracle the high priest 
was fully convinced ; and afterwards convinced the proconsul. Both of 
them were baptized, — and persecution, from that time, ceased. They also 
built the church dedicated to St. John, at Ephesus. 

For this series of fables I am indebted again to the kindness of Dr. Murdock, in 
whose manuscript lectures they are so well translated from the original romances, as 
to make it unnecessary for me to repeat the labor of making a new version from the 
Latin. The sight of the results of" abler efforts directly before me, offers a tempta- 
tion to exonerate myself from a tedious and unsatisfactory effort, which is too great 
to be resisted, while researches into historical truth have a much more urgent claim 
for time and exertion. 

The only one of all these fables that occurs in the writings of the Fathers, is the 
first, which may be pronounced a tolerably respectable and ancient story. It is nar- 
rated by Clemens Alexandrinus, (about A. D. 200.) The story is copied from Cle- 
mens Alexandrinus by Eusebius, from whom we received it, the original work of 
Clemens being now lost. Chrysostom also gives an abridgment of the tale. (I. Pa- 
raenes. ad Theod.) Anastasius Sinaita, Simeon Metaphrastes, Nicephorus Callistus, 
the Pseudo-Abdias, and the whole herd of monkish writers, give the story almost 
verbatim from Clemens; for it is so full in his account as to need no embellishment 
to make it a good story. Indeed, its completeness in all these interesting details, is 
one of the most suspicious circumstances about it ; in short, it is almost too good a 
story to be true. Those who wish to see all the evidence for and against its authen- 
ticity, may find it thoroughly examined in Lampe's Prolegomena in Joannem. 
(I. v. 4 — 10.) It is, on the whole, the best authorized of all the stories about the apos- 
tles, which are given by the Fathers, and may reasonably be considered to have been 
true in the essential parts, though the minute details of the conversations, &c, are 
probably embellishments worked in by Clemens Alexandrinus, or his informants. 

The rest of these stories are, most unquestionably, all falsehoods ; nor does any 
body pretend to find the slightest authority for a solitary particular of them. They 
are found no where but in the novels of the Pseudo-Abdias. and the martyrologies. 
(Abd. Babyl., Apost. Hist. lib. V., S. Joan.) 

HIS DEATH. 

Respecting the close of his life, all antiquity is agreed that it 
was not terminated by martyrdom, nor by any violent death what- 
ever, but by a calm and peaceful departure in the course of na- 
ture, at a very great age. The precise number of years to which 
he attained cannot be known, because no writer who lived within 
five hundred years of his time, has pretended to specify his exact 
age. It is merely mentioned on very respectable ancient authority, 
that he survived to the beginning of the reign of Trajan. This 
noblest of the successors of Julius, began his splendid reign in 
A. D. 98, according to the most approved chronology ; so that if 
John did not outlive even the first year of Trajan, his death is 
brought very near the close of the first century ; and from what 



376 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

has been reasonably conjectured about his age, compared with that 
of his Lord, it may be supposed that he attained upwards of eighty 
years, — a supposition which agrees well enough with the state- 
ment of some of the Fathers, that he died worn out with old age. 
But even here, the monkish inventors have found room for new 
fables, and though the great weight of all ancient testimony de- 
prives them of the opportunity to enter into the horrible details 
of a bloody and agonizing death, they can not refuse themselves 
the pleasure of some tedious absurdities, about the manner of his 
death and burial, which are barely worth a partial sketch, to show 
how determined the apostolic novelists are to follow their heroes 
to the very last, with the glories of a fancifully miraculous de- 
parture. 

The circumstances of his death are described in the martyrologies, and 
by Abdias, in this manner. He had a vision acquainting him with his 
approaching exit, five days before it happened. On a Lord's-day morning, 
he went to the great church at Ephesus, bearing his name, and there per- 
formed public worship as usual, at day-break. About the middle of the 
forenoon, he ordered a deacon, and some grave-diggers, with their tools, 
to accompany him to the burying ground. He then set them to digging 
his grave, while he, after ordering the multitude to depart, spent the time 
in prayer. He once looked into the grave, and bid them dig it deeper. 
When it was finished, he took off his outer garment, and spread it in the 
grave. Then, standing over it, he made a speech to those present, (which 
is not worth repeating,) then gave thanks to God for the arrival of the time 
of his release, — and placing himself in the grave, and wrapping himself 
up, he instantly expired. The grave was filled up ; and afterwards mira- 
cles took place at it, and a kind of manna issued from it, which possessed 
great virtues. 

There is no need, however, of such fables, to crown with the 
false honors of a vain prodigy, the calmly glorious end of the 
u Last of the Apostles." It is enough for the Christian to 
know, that, with the long, bright course of almost a century behind 
him, and with the mighty works of his later years around him, 
John closed the solemn apostolic drama, bearing with him in his 
late departure the last light of inspiration, and the last personal 
" testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy." Blessed in 
his works thus following him, he died in the Lord, and now rests 
from his labors, — as calmly and as sweetly as once on the breast of 
that loved friend, who cherished so tenderly the youthful Son of 
Thunder, — on 

" The bosom of his Father and his God." 



PHILIP. 



In all the three gospel lists, this apostle is placed fifth in order, 
the variations in the arrangements of the preceding making no 
difference in his position. In the first chapter of Acts, however, a 
different arrangement is made of his name, as will be hereafter 
mentioned. The mere mention of his name on the list, is all the 
notice taken of him by either of the three first evangelists, and it 
is only in the gospel of John, that the slightest additional circum- 
stance can be learned about him. From this authority it is ascer- 
tained that he was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, 
and probably also the home or frequent visiting-place of the sons 
of Zebedee, by the younger of whom he is so particularly com- 
memorated. Immediately after the narration of the introduction 
of Andrew, John, and Peter, to Jesus, in the first chapter of this 
gospel, it is said that Jesus designing to leave Bethabara and go 
forth into Galilee, and probably seeking as his companions such 
followers of John as were natives and residents of that region, 
came to Philip, and called him to go with him. From his ac- 
quaintance and local connexion with Peter and Andrew, who had 
just devoted themselves with such ready zeal to the faith and ser- 
vice of Jesus, Philip, too, must have heard of him before he saw 
him ; so that when Jesus met him, he was prepared at once to 
receive the call which Jesus immediately gave him, — " Follow me." 
From the circumstance that he was the first person who was sum- 
moned by Jesus, in this particular formula of invitation to the dis- 
cipleship, some writers have, not without reason, claimed for 
Philip the name and honors of the Protoclete, or "first-called.;" 
though Andrew has commonly been considered as best entitled 
to this dignity, from his being the first mentioned by name, actu- 
ally becoming acquainted with Jesus. Philip was so devoutly 
engaged, at once, in the cause of his new Master, that he, like 
Andrew, immediately sought out others to share the blessings of 
the discipleship ; and soon after meeting one of his friends, Na- 
thanael, he expressed the ardor of his faith in his new teacher, by 
the words in which he invited him to join in this honorable fellow- 



378 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ship, — " We have found him of whom Moses, in the law, and all the 
prophets, did write, — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." The 
result of this application will be related in the life of the person 
most immediately concerned. After this, no notice whatever is 
taken of Philip except where incidental remarks made by him in 
the conversations of Jesus, are recorded by John. Thus, at the 
feeding of the five thousand, upon Jesus's asking whether they 
had the means of procuring food for the multitude, Philip an- 
swered, that " two hundred pence would not buy enough for 
them, that every one might take a little," — thus showing himself 
not at all prepared by his previous faith in Jesus, for the great 
miracle which was about to happen ; though Jesus had asked the 
question, as John says, with the actual design of trying the extent 
of his confidence in him. He is afterwards mentioned in the last 
conversations of Jesus, as saying to him — " Show us the Father, 
and it sufficeth us," — here, too, betraying also a most unfortunate 
deficiency, both of faith and knowledge, and implying also a vain 
desire to gratify his eyes with still more miraculous displays of the 
divine power of his Master ; though even in this respect, he pro- 
bably was no worse off than all the rest of the disciples, before 
the resurrection of Jesus. 

Protoclete. — Hammond claims this peculiar honor for Philip, with great zeal. 
(See his notes on John i. 43.) 

Of his ajyostleship not one word is recorded in the New Tes- 
tament, for he is no where mentioned in the Acts, except as being 
one of the apostles assembled in the upper chamber after the as- 
cension ; nor do the epistles contain the slightest allusion to him. 
Some of the most ancient authorities among the Fathers, how- 
ever, are distinct in their mention of some supposed circumstances 
of his later life ; but most of these accounts are involved in total 
discredit, by the fact that they make him identical with Philip the 
deacon, whose active and zealous labors in Samaria, and along the 
coast of Palestine, from Gaza, through Ashdod to Caesarea, his 
home, are minutely related in the Acts, and have been already al- 
luded to, in that part of the life of Peter which is connected with 
these incidents. It has always been supposed, with much reason, 
in modern times, that the offices of an apostle and a deacon were 
so totally distinct and different, that they could never both be 
borne by one and the same person ; but the Fathers, even the very 
ancient ones, seem to have had not the slightest idea of any such 
incompatibility ; and therefore uniformly speak of Philip the apos- 



philip. 379 

tie, as the same person with Philip, one of the seven deacons, who 
is mentioned by Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, as having lived 
at Caesarea in Palestine, with his daughters, who were virgins and 
prophetesses. Testimony more distinct than this, can no where 
be found, among all the Fathers, on any point whatever ; and very 
little that is more ancient. Yet how does it accord with the no- 
tions of those who revere these very Fathers as almost immaculate 
in truth, and in all intellectual, as well as moral excellence ? What 
is the evidence of these boasted Fathers worth, on any point in 
controversy about apostolic church government, or doctrine, or 
criticism, if the modern notion of the incompatibility of the two 
offices of apostle and deacon is correct ? 

The testimony of the Fathers on this point, is simply this. Eusebius (Hist. Ecc. 
III. 31) quotes Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, who, in his letter to Victor, bishop of 
Rome, (written A. D. 195, or 196,) makes mention of Philip in these exact words : 
" Philip, who was one of the twelve apostles, died in Hierapolis;" Tin Phrygia;) " and 
so did two of his daughters, who had grown old in virginity. And another of his 
daughters, after having passed her life under the influence of the Holy Spirit, was 
buried at Ephesus." This certainly is a most perfect identification of Philip the 
apostle with Philip the deacon; for it is this latter person who is particularly men- 
tioned in Acts xxi. 8, 9, as " having four daughters who did prophesy." He is there 
especially designated as " Philip the evangelist, one of the seven" while Polycrates 
expressly declares, that this same person " was one of the twelve." Eusebius also, in 
the preceding chapter, quotes Clemens Alexandrinus, as mentioning Philip among 
those apostles who were married, because he is mentioned as having had daughters ; 
and Clemens even adds that these were afterwards married, which directly contra- 
dicts the previous statement of Polycrates, that three of them died virgins, in old age. 
Yet Eusebius quotes all these contradictory statements, with approbation. 

Papias, (A. D. 140,) bishop of Hierapolis, the very place of the death and burial 
of Philip, is represented by Eusebius as having been well acquainted with the 
daughters of Philip, mentioned in Acts, as the virgin prophetesses. Papias says that 
he himself " heard these ladies say that their father once raised a dead person to life, 
in their time." But it deserves notice, that Papias, the very best authority on this 
subject, is no where quoted as calling this Philip " an apostle ;" though Eusebius, on 
his own authority, gives this name to the Philip of whom Papias speaks. It is there- 
fore reasonable to conclude, that this blunder, betraying such a want of familiarity 
with the New Testament history, originated after the time of Papias, whose intimate 
acquaintance with Philip's family would have enabled him to say, at once, that this 
was the deacon, and not the apostle ; though it is not probable that he was any less de- 
plorably ignorant of the scriptures than some of the Fathers were. 

Now what can be said of the testimony of the Fathers on points where they can 
not refer, either to their own personal observation, or to informants who have seen 
and heard what they testify'? The only way in which they can be shielded from the 
reproach of a gross blunder and a disgraceful ignorance of the New Testament, is, 
that they were right in identifying these two Philips, and that modern theologians are 
wrong in making the distinction. On this dilemma I will not pretend to decide ; for 
though so little reverence for the judgment and information of the Fathers has been 
shown in this book, there does seem to me to be some reason for hesitation on this 
point, where the Fathers ought to have been as well informed as anybody. They 
must have known surely, whether, according to the notions of those primitive ages of 
Christianity, there was any incompatibility between the apostleship and the deacon- 
ship ! If their testimony is worth any thingon such points, perhaps ("?) it may weigh so 
much on this, as to cause a doubt whether they are not right, and the moderns wrong. 
However, barely suggesting this query, without attempting a decision, as Luther says 
— " I will afford to other and higher spirits, occasion to reflect." 

Perhaps, for the sake of those who are troubled and alarmed at this exposure of 
the ignorance and carelessness of the Fathers, it may be worth while to add, that 
50 



380 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

these views and opinions of the errors mentioned, are not peculiar to the author of 
the Lives of the Apostles, but are perfectly familiar to every critical reader of the 
Fathers, or of modern criticisms, abstracts, and annotations on these subjects. Among 
the general decisions of modern critics against these gross blunders, none can be 
more satisfactory than that of the eminent Valesius, in his Annotations on Eusebius. 
(III. 31.— 1T1T 2, 3, p. 54, ed. Moguntiae.) To this the doubtful are referred, and to 
every modern criticism on the subject ; for I know of no critic, of any authority, who 
has pretended to deny that the Fathers, until the time of Isidore of Pelusium, (A. D. 
41*2,) grossly erred in identifying the two Philips. It should be remembered by 
the over-scrupulous, that Valesius was an ardent and eminent member of the Galil- 
ean branch of the Romish church. Dr. Murdock, in his MS. Lectures, is very de- 
cided. 

This is all the satisfaction that the brief records of the inspired 
or uninspired historians of Christianity can give the inquirer, on 
the life of this apostle ; — so unequal were the labors of the first 
ministers of Christ, and their claims for notice. Philip, no doubt, 
served the purpose for which he was called, faithfully; but in these 
brief sketches, there are no traces of any genius of a high charac- 
ter, that could distinguish him above the thousands that are for- 
gotten, but whose labors, like those of the minutest animals in a 
mole-hill, contribute an indispensable portion to the completion of 
the mass, in whose mighty structure all their individual efforts are 
swallowed up for ever. 

Some fragments of ancient tradition do, however, commemorate the fact, that 
Philip preached the gospel in Scythia. (Natalis Alexand. I. viii. p. 32.) The cir- 
cumstance, however vaguely noticed, deserves respectful consideration, from its con- 
formity with the general current of tradition, in respect to the other apostles. (See 
Life of Andrew, ad. Jin.) 

And though the ancient Polycrates may have blundered griev- 
ously, in respect to the apostle's personal identity, his hope of the 
glorious resurrection of those whom he supposed to have died in 
Asia will doubtless be equally well rewarded, if, to the amazement 
of the Fathers, the apostle Philip should rise at last from the dust 
of Babylon, or the shades of Persia, while his namesake, the 
evangelist, shall burst from his tomb in Hierapolis. " For," as 
Polycrates truly says, " in Asia some great lights have gone down, 
that shall rise again on that day of the Lord's approach, when 
he shall come from the heavens in glory, and shall raise up all his 
saints ; — Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps at Hierapo- 
lis, with his venerable virgin daughters, — John, who lay in the 
bosom of the Lord, and who is laid at Ephesus, — Polycarp, at 
Smyrna, — Thraseas, at Eumenia, — Sagaris. at Laodicea, — Papirius 
and Melito, at Sardis — all await the visitation of the Lord from 
the heavens, in which he shall raise them from the dead." 






NATHANAEL BAR-THOLOMEW, 



HIS NAME AND CALL. 

In respect to this apostle, there occurs a primary question about 
his name, which is given so differently in different sacred authori- 
ties, as to induce a strong suspicion that the two names refer to 
two totally distinct persons. The reasons for applying the two 
words, Nathan ael and Bartholomew, to the same person, are the 
circumstances, — that none of the three first evangelists mention 
any person named Nathan ael, and that John never mentions the 
name Bartholomew, — that Bartholomew and Nathanael are each 
mentioned on these different authorities, among the chosen disciples 
of Jesus, — that Bartholomew is mentioned by the three first evan- 
gelists, on all the lists, directly after Philip, who is by John repre- 
sented as his intimate friend, — and that Bartholomew is not an 
individual name, but a word showing parentage merely, — the first 
syllable being often prefixed to Syriac names, for this purpose ; and 
jBar-Tholomew means the " son of Tholomew," or " Tholomai ■ " 
just as Bar- Jonah means the " son of Jonah ;" nor was the former 
any more in reality the personal, individual name of Nathanael, 
than the latter was of Peter ; but some circumstance may have 
occurred to make it, in this instance, often take the place of the 
true individual name. 

A few very brief notices are given of this apostle by John, who 
alone alludes to him, otherwise than by a bare mention on the list. 
It is mentioned in his gospel that Nathanael was of Cana, in Gali- 
lee, a town which stood about half-way between lake Gennesaret 
and the Mediterranean sea ; but the circumstances of his call show 
that he was then with Philip, at or near Bethabara. Philip, after 
being summoned by Jesus to the discipleship, immediately sought 
to bring his friend Nathanael into an enjoyment of the honors of a 
personal intercourse with Jesus, and invited him to become a fol- 
lower of the Messiah, foretold by Moses and the prophets, who had 
now appeared, as Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. On hear- 
ing of that mean place, as the home of the promised King of Israel, 



382 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Nathanael, with great scorn, replied, in inquiry, " Can any good 
thing come out of Nazareth ?" To this sneering question, Philip 
answered by the simple proposition, "Come and see;" — wisely 
judging that no argument could answer his friend's prejudice so 
well as an actual observation of the character and aspect of the 
Nazarene himself. Nathanael, accordingly, persuaded by the 
earnestness of his friend, came along with him, perhaps, partly to 
gratify him, but, no doubt, with his curiosity somewhat moved to 
know what could have thus brought Philip into this devout regard 
for a citizen of that infamous town ; and he therefore readily accom- 
panied him to see what sort of prophet could come out of Nazareth. 
The words with which Jesus greeted Nathanael, even before he 
had been personally introduced, or was prepared for any saluta- 
tion, are the most exalted testimonial of his character that could 
be conceived, and show at once his very eminent qualifications for 
the high honors of the apostleship. When Jesus saw Nathanael 
coming to him, he said, " Behold a true son of Israel, in whom is 
no guile !" — manifesting at once a confidential and intimate know- 
ledge of his whole character, in thus pronouncing with such ready 
decision, this high and uncommon tribute of praise upon him, as 
soon as he appeared before him. Nathanael, quite surprised at 
this remarkable compliment from one whom he had never seen 
until that moment, and whom he supposed to be equally ignorant 
of him, replied with the inquiry — u Whence knowest thou me V 
Jesus answered — "Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under 
the fig-tree, I saw thee." The fig-trees of Palestine, presenting a 
wide, leafy cover, and a delightful shade, were often used in the 
warm season as places of retirement, either in company, for con- 
versation, or in solitude, for meditation and prayer, as is shown in 
numerous passages in the Rabbinical writings ; and it was, doubt- 
less, in one of these occupations that Nathanael was engaged, re- 
moved, as he supposed, from all observation, at the time to which 
Jesus referred. But the eye that could pierce the stormy shades of 
night on the boisterous waves of Galilee, and that could search the 
hearts of all men, could also penetrate the thick, leafy veil of the 
fig-tree, and observe the most secret actions of this guileless Israel- 
ite, when he supposed the whole world to be shut out, and gave 
himself to the undisguised enjoyment of his thoughts, feelings, and 
actions, without restraint. Nathanael, struck with sudden, but 
absolute conviction, at this amazing display of knowledge, gave 
up all his proud scruples against the despised Nazarene, and 



NATHANAEL. 383 

adoringly exclaimed, " Rabbi ! thou art the Son of God,— thou art 
the King of Israel." Jesus recognizing with pleasure the ready- 
faith of this pure-minded disciple, replied, " Because I said unto 
thee, ' I saw thee under the fig-tree,' believest thou ? Thou shalt 
see yet greater things than these." Then turning to Philip as well 
as to Nathanael, he says to them both, " I solemnly assure you, 
hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascend- 
ing and descending upon the Son of Man." 

For numerous illustrations of the fact that the embowering shades of fig-trees were 
used in the East, as places of retirement and solitary meditation, see Bloomfield, 
Wetstein, Kuinoel, and Lightfoot. The former are more especially full on this subject. 

On the day but one after this occurrence, as John records, Jesus 
was in Cana of Galilee, the residence of Nathanael, and was pre- 
sent at a wedding which took place there. From the circumstance 
that the mother of Jesus was there also, it would seem likely that 
it was the marriage of some of their family friends ; otherwise the 
conjecture might seem allowable, that the presence of Jesus and 
his disciples on this occasion, was in some way connected with 
the introduction of Nathanael to Jesus ; and that this new disciple 
may have been some way concerned in this interesting event. 
The manner in which the occurrence is announced, — it being next 
specified, that two days after the occurrences recorded in the end 
of the first chapter, Jesus was present at a marriage in Cana of 
Galilee, — would seem to imply very fairly, that Jesus had been in 
some other place immediately before ; and it is probable, therefore, 
that he accompanied Nathanael home from Bethabara, which was 
the scene of his calling to the discipleship, along with Philip. 
After this first incident, no mention whatever is made of Nathanael, 
either under his proper name, or his paternal appellation, except 
that when the twelve were sent forth in pairs, he was sent with 
his friend Philip, that those who had been summoned to the work 
together, might now go forth laboring together in this high com- 
mission. One solitary incident is also commemorated by John, 
in which this apostle was concerned, namely, the meeting on the 
lake of Gennesaret, after the resurrection, where his name is men- 
tioned among those who went out on the fishing excursion with 
Peter. His friend Philip is not there mentioned, but may have 
been one of the " two disciples," who are included without their 
names being given. From this trifling circumstance, some have 
concluded that Nathanael was a fisherman by trade, as well as the 
other four who are mentioned with him ; and certainly the conjee- 



384 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ture is reasonable, and not improbable, except from the circum- 
stance that his residence was at Cana, which is commonly under- 
stood to have been an inland town, <md too far from the water, 
for any of its inhabitants to follow fishing as a business. Other 
idle and foolish conjectures about his occupation and rank might be 
multiplied from most ancient and venerable authorities ; but let the 
dust of ages sleep on. the prosy guesses of the Gregories, of Chry- 
sostom, Augustin, and their reverential copyists in modern times. 
There is too much need of room in this book, for the detail and 
discussion of truth, to allow paper to be wasted on baseless conjec- 
tures, or palpable falsehoods. 

HIS APOSTLESHIP. 

There is a dim relic of a story, of quite ancient date, that after 
the dispersion of the apostles, he went to Arabia, and preached 
there till his death. This is highly probable, because it is well 
known that many of the Jews, more particularly after the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, settled along the eastern coasts of the Red sea, 
where they were continued for centuries. Nothing can be more 
reasonable, then, than to suppose that after the wasting fury of 
invasion had desolated the city and the land of their fathers, many 
of the Christian Jews too, went forth to seek a new home in the 
peaceful regions of Arabia Felix ; and that with them also went 
forth this true Israelite without guile, to devote the rest of his life 
to apostolic labors, in that distant country, where those of his 
wandering brethren, who had believed in Christ, would so much 
need the support and counsel of one of the divinely commissioned 
ministers of the gospel. Those Israelites too, who still continued 
unbelievers, would present objects of importance, in the view of 
the apostle. All the visible glories of the ancient covenant had 
departed ; and in that distant land, with so little of the chilling in- 
fluence of the dogmatical teachers of the law around them, they 
would be the more readily led to the just appreciation of a spiritual 
faith, and a simple creed. 

All the testimony which antiquity affords on this point, is simply this : — Eusebius 
(Hist. Ecc. V. 10) says, in giving the life of Pantaenus of Alexandria, (who lived 
about A. D. 180,) that this enterprising Christian philosopher penetrated, in his 
researches and travels, as far as to the inhabitants of India. It has been shown by 
Tillemont, Asseman, and Michaelis, that this term, in this connexion, means Arabia 
Felix, one part of whose inhabitants were called Indians, by the Hebrews, the Syrians, 
and the early ecclesiastical historians. Eusebius relates that Pantaenus there found 
the gospel of Matthew, in Hebrew, and that the tradition among these people was, 
that Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles, had formerly preached there, and left 
this gospel among them. This tradition being only a hundred years old when Pan- 
taenus heard it, ranks among those of rather respectable character. 






NATHANAEL. 385 

This modern interpretation of the name India, is also very strongly confirmed by 
the statements of Runnus (A. D. 390) and Socrates, (A. D. 439.) The former (Hist, 
x. 9) asserts that Bartholomew preached the gospel in Nearer India, on the borders of 
Ethiopia. The latter (Hist. i. 19) says the same. Nicaeas (A. D. 420) says that Philip 
preached the faith in Arabia Felix, India, and Eastern Ethiopia. The fable-mongers 
make out a totally different account, and, in their inventive ignorance, carry him far east- 
ward, where various stories subject him to a variety of horrible martyrdoms. Some 
assert that he was martyred by flaying alive and beheading, in Armenia, at the city 
of Albanopolis. Others say that in extreme old age he was martyred, at Urbanopolis, 
in Greater Armenia, by scourging and crucifixion. Others say, by scourging and 
beheading. (See Natalis Alexander, Hist. Ecc. I. viii. p. 32.) 

The tradition certainly appears authentic, and is a very interest- 
ing and valuable fragment of early Christian history, giving a 
trace of the progress of the gospel, which otherwise would never 
have been recognized, — besides the satisfaction of such a reasonable 
story about an apostle of whom the inspired narrative records so 
little, although he is represented in such an interesting light, by 
the account of his introduction to Jesus. Here he learned the 
meaning of the solemn prophecy with which Jesus crowned that 
noble profession of faith. Here he saw, no doubt, yet greater to- 
kens of the power of Christ, than in the deep knowledge of hidden 
things then displayed. And here, resting at last from his labors, 
he departed to the full view of the glories there foretold, — to " see 
heaven opened, and the angels of God" no longer " ascending and 
descending upon the Son of Man," in ministration and in testimony, 
but falling before his high throne in worship, adoring at his feet, 
amid the unclouded glories of his triumphs over sin and death. 



MATTHEW. 



HIS RANK AND NAME. 

In his own gospel, Matthew is not ranked immediately after the 
preceding apostle, but numbers himself eighth on the list, and 
after his associate, Thomas ; but all the other lists agree in giving 
this apostle a place immediately after Nathanael. The testimony 
of others in regard to his rank has therefore been adopted, in pre- 
ference to his own, which was evidently influenced by a too 
modest estimation of himself. 

In connexion with this apostle, as in other instances, there is a 
serious question about his name and individual identity, arising 
from the different appellations under which he is mentioned in dif- 
ferent parts of the sacred record. In his own gospel, he is refer- 
red to by no other name than his common one ; but by Mark and 
Luke, the circumstances of his call are narrated, with the details 
almost precisely similar to those recorded of the same occurrence 
by himself, and yet the person thus called, (in the same form of 
words used in summoning the other apostles,) is named Levi, the 
son of Alpheus ; though Mark and Luke record Matthew by his 
common name among the twelve, in the list of names. Some 
have thought that the circumstance of their mentioning Matthew 
in this manner, without referring at all to his identity with the 
person named Levi, proves that they, too, had no idea that the 
former name was applied to the same person as the latter, and 
on the contrary, were detailing the call of some other disciple, — 
perhaps Jude, who also is called by the similar name, Lebbeus, 
and is known to have been the son of Alpheus. This view is not 
improbable, and is so well supported by coinciding circumstances, 
as to throw great uncertainty over the whole matter ; though not 
entirely to set aside the probabilities arising from the almost per- 
fect similarity between Matthew's call, as related by himself, and 
the call of Levi, the son of Alpheus, as given in the other gospels. 

On the question of Matthew's identity with Levi, Michaelisis full. (Int. III. iv. I.) 
Fabricius (Biblioth. Graec. IV. vii. 2) discusses the question quite at length, and his 



MATTHEW. 387 

annotators give abundance of references to authors, in the notes, in addition to those 
mentioned by himself, in the text. 

HIS CALL. 

The circumstances of his call, as narrated by himself, are re- 
presented as occurring at or near Capernaum. " Jesus, passing out 
of the city, saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of 
custom, and he said to him — ' Follow me.' And he arose, and 
followed him." This account shows Matthew's occupation, which 
is also known from the title of " the tax-gatherer," annexed to his 
name, in his own list of the apostles. This was an occupation 
which, though unquestionably a source of great profit to those em- 
ployed in it, and consequently as much sought after as such offices 
are in these days, and in this country, was always connected with 
a great deal of popular odium, from the relation in which they 
stood to the people, in this profitable business. The class of col- 
lectors to which Matthew belouged, in particular, being the mere 
toll-gatherers, sitting to collect the money, penny by penny, from 
the unwilling people, whose national pride was every moment 
wounded by the degrading foreign exactions of the Romans, suf- 
fered under a peculiar ignominy, and were supposed to have re- 
nounced all patriotism and honor, in stooping, for the base pur- 
poses of pecuniary gain, to act as instruments of such a galling 
form of servitude, and were therefore visited with a universal 
popular hatred and scorn. A class of men thus deprived of all 
character for honor and delicacy of feeling, would naturally grow 
hardened, beyond all sense of shame ; and this aggravating the usual 
official impudence which characterizes all mean persons holding a 
place which gives them the power to annoy others, the despised 
publicans would generally repay this spite, on every occasion, 
which could enable them to be vexatious to those who came in 
contact with them. Yet out of this hated class, Jesus did not 
disdain to take at least one — perhaps more — of those whom he 
chose for the express purpose of building up a pure faith, and of 
evangelizing the world. No doubt, before the occasion of this 
call, Matthew had been a frequent hearer of the words of truth 
which fell from the divinely eloquent lips of the Redeemer, — words 
that had not been without a purifying and exalting effect on the 
heart of the publican, though long so degraded by daily and hourly 
familiarity with meanness and vice. And so weaned was his soul 
from the love of the gainful pursuit to which he had been devoted, 
that at the first call from Jesus, he arose from the place of toll- 

51 



388 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

gathering, and followed his summoner, to a duty for which his pre- 
vious occupation had but poorly prepared him. With such satis- 
faction did he renounce his old vocation, for the discipleship of the 
Nazarene, that he made it a great occasion of rejoicing, and cele- 
brated the day as a festival, calling in all his old friends as well as 
his new ones, to share in the hospitable entertainment which he 
spread for all who could join with him in the social circle. Nor^ 
did the holy Redeemer despise the rough and indiscriminate com- 
pany to which the grateful joy of Matthew had invited him ; but 
rejoicing in an opportunity to do good to a class of people so sel- 
dom brought under the means of grace, he unhesitatingly sat down 
to the entertainment with his disciples, — Savior and sinners, toll- 
gatherers and apostles, collected in one motley group, around 
the festive board. What a sight was this for the eyes of the proud 
Pharisees who were spitefully watching the conduct of the man 
who had lately taken upon himself the exalted character of a 
teacher, and a reformer of the law ! Passing into the house with 
the throng who entered at the open doors of the hospitable Mat- 
thew, — they saw the much-glorified prophet of Nazareth, sitting 
at the social table with a company of odious custom-house col- 
lectors, and half-renegade receivers of tribute, one of whose honor- 
able fraternity he had just adopted into the goodly fellowship of 
his disciples, and with whom he was now eating and drinking, 
as if they were as good as Pharisees and lawyers. At this spec- 
tacle, so degrading to such a dignity as they considered most be- 
coming in one who aspired to be a teacher of morals and religion, 
the scribes and Pharisees sneeringly asked the disciples of Jesus 
— " Why eateth your Master with tax-gatherers and sinners % n 
Jesus, hearing the malicious inquiry, answered it in such a tone 
of irony as best suited its impertinence. u They that are whole, 
need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and 
learn what this means — \ I will have mercy, rather than sacri- 
fice ;' for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
pentance." 

HIS GOSPEL. 

After the history of his call, not one circumstance is related re- 
specting him, either in the gospels, the Acts, or the epistles. In his 
own gospel, he makes not the slightest allusion to aoy thing either 
said or done by himself; nor does his name any where occur except 
in the apostolic lists. Even the Fathers are silent as to any other 
important circumstances of his life, and it is only in the noble record 



MATTHEW. 389 

which he has left of the life of Christ, in the gospel which bears his 
name, that any monument of his actions and character can now be 
found. Yet this solitary remaining effort of his genius is of such 
importance in the history of revealed religion, that hardly the most 
eminent of the apostles is so often brought to mind, as the evangelist, 
whose clear, simple, but impressive testimony to the words and deeds 
of his Lord, now stands at the head of the sacred canon. 

I. In what language did Matthew write his Gospel? 

On the history of this portion of the Christian scriptures, the testi- 
mony of the Fathers, from very early times, is very decided in main- 
taining the fact, that it was written in the vernacular language of 
Palestine. The very earliest testimony on this point, dating within 
seventy-five years of the time of Matthew himself, expressly declares 
that Matthew wrote his gospel in the Hebrew language ; and that 
each one interpreted it for himself as he could. It is also said on 
somewhat early authority, that he wrote his gospel when about to 
depart from Palestine, that those whom he left behind him might 
have an authentic record of the facts in the life of Christ. So that 
by these and a great number of other testimonies, uniformly to the 
same effect, the point seems well established, that Matthew wrote in 
Hebrew ; and that what is now extant as his gospel, is only a 
translation into Greek, made in some later age, by some person un- 
known. 

In mentioning the Hebrew as the original language of the gospel of Matthew, it 
should be noticed, that the dialect spoken by the Jews of the time of Christ and his 
apostles, was by no means the language in which the Old Testament was written, 
and which is commonly meant by this name at present. The true ancient Hebrew 
had long before become a dead language, as truly so as it is now, and as much un- 
known to the mass of the people, as the Latin is in Italy, or the Anglo-Saxon in Eng- 
land. Yet the language was still called " the Hebrew," as appears from several pas- 
sages in the New Testament, where the Hebrew is spoken of as the vernacular lan- 
guage of the Jews of Palestine. It seems proper therefore, to designate the later 
Hebrew by the same name which is applied to it by those who spoke it, and this is 
still among modern writers the term used for it ; but of late, some, especially Hug 
and his commentator, Wait, have introduced the name " Aramaic," as a distinctive 
title of this dialect, deriving this term from Aram, the original name of Syria, and 
the regions around, in all which w 7 as spoken in the time of Christ, this or a similar 
dialect. This term, however, is quite unnecessary; and I therefore prefer to use 
here the common name, as above limited, because it is the one used in the New Tes- 
tament, and the one in familiar use, not only with common readers, but, as far as 
I know, with the majority of Biblical critics. 

Though the evidence that Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew, is apparently of 
the most uniform, weighty, and decisive character, there have been many among the 
learned, within the three last centuries, who have denied it, and have brought the 
best of their learning and ability to prove that the Greek gospel of Matthew, which 
is now in the New Testament, is the original production of his pen ; and so skilfully 
has this modern view been maintained, that this has already been made one of the 
most doubtful questions in the history of the canon. In Germany more particularly, 
(but not entirely,) this notion has, since the Reformation, been strongly supported by 
many who do not like the idea, that we are in possession only of a translation of this 
most important record of sacred history, and that the original is now lost for ever. 
Those who have more particularly distinguished themselves on this side of the con- 
troversy, are Erasmus, Beza, Le Clerc, Maius, Schroder, Masch, Sender, and Hug, 
but the great majority of critics still support the old view, 



390 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

The earliest evidence for the Hebrew original of Matthew's gospel, is Papias of 
Hierapolis, (A. D. 110—140,) not long after the times of the apostles, and ac- 
quainted with many who knew them personally. Eusebius (H. E. III. 39) quotes the 
words of Papias, (of which the original is now lost,) which are exactly translated 
here: — " Matthew therefore wrote the divine words in the Hebrew language; and 
every one translated them as he could." By which it appears that in the time of Pa- 
pias there was no universally acknowledged translation of Matthew's gospel ; but 
that every one was still left to his own private discretion, in giving the meaning in 
Greek from the original Hebrew. The value of Papias's testimony on any point 
connected with the history of the apostles, may be best learned from his own simple 
and honest account of his opportunities and efforts to inquire into their history ; (as 
recorded by Eusebius in a former part of the same chapter.) " If any person who 
had ever been acquainted with the elders, came into my company, I inquired of them 
the words of the eiders;— what Andrew and Peter said? — what Thomas, and James, 
and John, and Matthew, and the other disciples of the Lord used to say?" — All this 
shows an inquiring, zealous mind, faithful in particulars, and ready in improving 
opportunities for acquiring historical knowledge. Yet because in another part of the 
works of Eusebius, he is characterized as rather enthusiastic, and very weak in judg- 
ment, more particularly in respect to doctrines, some moderns have attempted to set 
aside his testimony, as worth nothing on this simple historical point, the decision of 
which, from the direct personal witness of those who had seen Matthew and read 
his original gospel, no more needed judgment than would the remembrance of his own 
name. The argument offered to discredit Papias is this : — " He believed in a bodily 
reign of the Messiah on the earth, during the whole period of the Millennium, and 
for this, and some similar errors, is pronounced by Eusebius ' a man, in some par- 
ticulars, of very weak judgment,' — [vcpoSpa n apiKpds tov vbvv, Eusebius iii. 39. Hug 
makes a verbal error in quoting this, — substituting navv for the first word, and sup- 
pressing Ti.] Therefore, he could not have known in what language Matthew wrote." 
The objection certainly is worth something against a man who made such errors as 
Papias, in questions where any nice discrimination is necessary, but in a simple 
effort of a ready memory, he is as good a witness as though he had the discrimina- 
tion of a modern skeptical critic. (In Michaelis's Int. N. T., vol. III. c. iv. § 4, is a 
full discussion of Papias's character and testimony, and the objections to them.) 
Hug's misquotation palpably betrays that the learned critic quoted from memory 
merely, and implies a neglect of such a fair examination as w ? as necessary to do jus- 
tice to the opinion expressed by Eusebius. 

The second witness is Irenaeus, (A. D. 160,) w T ho, however, coupling his testimony 
with a demonstrated falsehood, destroys the value w r hich might be otherwise put upon 
a statement so ancient as his. His words are quoted by Eusebius, (H. E., V. 8.) 
" Matthew published among the Hebrews his gospel, written in their own language, 
(jr\ i6ia avruv SiaXtKTcp,) while Peter and Paul were preaching Christ at Rome, and lay- 
ing the foundationsof the church." This latter circumstance is no great help to the 
story, after what has been proved on this point in the notes on Peter's life; but the 
critics do not pretend to attack it on this ground. They urge against it, that as Ire- 
naeus had a great regard for Papias, and took some facts on his word, he probably 
took this also from him, with no other authority, — a guess which only wants proof, 
to make a very tolerable argument. But let Irenaeus go for what he is worth ; there 
are enough without him. 

The third witness is Pantaenus of Alexandria, already quoted in the note on Na- 
thanael's life, (p. 384,) as having found this Hebrew gospel still in use, in that lan- 
guage, among the Jews of Arabia-Felix, towards the end of the second century. 

The fourth witness is Origen, (A. D. 230,) whose words on this point are preserved 
only in a quotation made by Eusebius, (H. E., VI. 25,) who thus gives them from 
Origen's commentary on Matthew. " As I have learned by tradition concerning the 
four gospels, which alone are received without dispute by the church of God under 
heaven: the first was written by Matthew, once a tax-gatherer, aftenvards an apostle 
of Jesus Christ, who published it for the benefit of the Jewish converts, having com- 
posed it in the Hebrew language," &c. The term, " tradition" (7rapa<W(j, parddosis,) 
here evidently means something more than floating, unauthorized information, 
coming merely by vague hearsay; for to this source only he refers all his knowledge 
of the fact, that " the gospel was written by Matthew;" so that, in fact, we have as 
good authority in this place, for believing that Matthew wrote in Hebrew, as we 
have that he wrote at all. The other circumstances specified, also show clearly, 
that he did not derive all his information on this point from Papias, as some have 



MATTHEW. 391 

urged ; because this account gives facts which that earlier Father did not mention, — 
as that it was written first, and that it was intended for the benefit of the Jewish converts. 

Later authorities, such as Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, Gregory 
of Nazianzus, and others, might be quoted in detail, to the same effect; but this gene- 
ral statement is sufficient for this place. The scholar, of course, will refer to the 
works on critical theology for detailed abstracts of these, as well as the former writers. 
Michaelis is very full, both in extracts and discussions. Hug also gives a minute 
account of the evidence, with the view of refuting it. 

The testimony of Jerome (A. D. 395) is, however, so full and explicit, and so 
valuable from his character as a Hebrew scholar, that it may well be esteemed of 
higher importance to the question, than that of some earlier writers. His words are 
— " Matthew composed his gospel in Hebrew letters and words, but it is not very 
well known who afterwards translated it. Moreover, the very Hebrew original 
itself is preserved even to this day, in the library at Caesarea, which the martyr 
Pamphilus most industriously collected. I also had the opportunity of copying [de~ 
scribendi] this book by means of the Nazareans in Beroea, a city of Syria, who use 
this book." (Jerome, De scriptoribus ecclesiast. Vita Matt.) Another passage from 
the same author is valuable testimony to the same purpose, — " Matthew wrote his gospel 
in the Hebrew language, principally for the sake of those Jews who believed in Jesus." 

Now these testimonies, though coming from an authority so late, are of the highest 
value, when his means of learning the truth are considered. By his own statement, 
it appears that he had actually seen and examined the original Hebrew gospel of Mat- 
thew, or what was considered to be such, as preserved in the valuable collections of 
Pamphilus, at a place within the region for which it was first written. It has been 
urged that Jerome confounded the " gospel according to the Hebrews," an apocryphal 
book, with the true original of Matthew. But this is disproved, from the circum- 
stance that Jerome himself translated this apocryphal gospel from the Hebrew into 
Latin, while he says that the translator of Matthew was unknown. But Hug most 
shamefully garbles and perverts this passage, quoting only mere scraps of this, 
and other passages not connected with it, — and conveying to an ordinary reader's 
mind the impression that Jerome saw only the apocryphal "gospel according to 
the Hebrews ;" whereas Jerome himself most distinctly declares that he saw Mat- 
thew's gospel ; and he afterwards translated the gospel according to the Hebrews as 
a different work. (See Hug II. § 11, note, p. 58 of the original.) 

In addition to these authorities from the Fathers, may be quoted the statements ap- 
pended to the ancient Syriac and Arabic versions, which distinctly declare that Mat- 
thew wrote in Hebrew. This was also the opinion of all the learned Syrians. 

The great argument with which all this evidence is met, (besides discrediting the 
witnesses,) is that Matthew ought to have written in Greek, and therefore did. (Mat- 
thaeus Graece scribere debuit. Schubert. Diss. § 24.) This sounds very strangely ; 
that, without any direct ancient testimony to support the assertion, but a great num- 
ber of distinct assertions against it, from the very earliest Fathers, moderns should 
now pronounce themselves better judges of what Matthew ought to do, than those 
who were so near to his time, and were so well acquainted with his design, and all 
the circumstances under which it was executed. Yet, strangely as it sounds, an ar- 
gument of even this presumptuous aspect, demands the most respectful consideration, 
more especially from those who have had frequent occasion, on other points, to no- 
tice the very questionable character of the " testimony of the Fathers." It should be 
noticed, however, that, in this case, the argument does not rest on a mere floating tra- 
dition, like many other mooted points in early Christian history, but in most of the 
witnesses, is referred to direct personal knowledge of the facts, and, in some cases, to 
actual inspection of the original. 

It is proper to notice the reasons for thinking that Matthew ought to have written 
in Greek, which have influenced such minds as those of Erasmus, Beza, Ittig, Leus- 
den, Spanheim, Le Clerc, Scmler, Hug, and others, and which have had a decisive 
weight with such wonderfully deep Hebrew scholars, as Wagenseil, Lightfoot, John 
Henry Michaelis, and Reland. The amount of the argument is, mainly, that the 
Greek was then so widely and commonly spoken even in Palestine, as to be the most 
desirable language for the evangelist to use in preserving for the benefit of his own 
countrymen the record of the life of Christ. The particulars of the highly elaborate 
and learned arguments, on which this assertion has been rested, have filled volumes, 
nor can even an abstract be allowed here ; but a simple reference to common facts 
will do something to show to common readers, the prominent objections to the notion 
of a Greek original. It is perfectly agreed that the Hebrew was the ordinary Ian- 



392 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

guage spoken by Christ, in his teachings, and in all his usual intercourse with the 
people around him. That this language was that in which the Jews also commonly 
wrote and read at that time, as far as they were able to do either, in any language, is 
equally plain. In spite of all that Grecian and Roman conquests could do, the Jews 
were still a distinct and peculiar people ; nor is there any reason whatever to suppose 
that they were any less so in language, than they were in dress, manners, and gene- 
ral character. He, therefore, who desired to write any thing for the benefit of the 
Jews, as a nation, would insure it altogether the best attention from them, if it came 
in a form most accordant with their national feelings. They would naturally be the 
first persons whose salvation would be an object to the apostolic writers, as to the 
apostolic preachers; and the feelings of the writer himself, being in some degree in- 
fluenced by love of his own countrymen, he would aim first at the direct spiritual 
benefit of those who were his kindred according to the flesh. Among all the histori- 
cal Avritings of the New Testament, that there should be not one originally composed 
in the language of the people among whom the Savior arose, with whom he lived, 
talked, and labored, and for whom he died, would be very strange. The fact that a 
gospel in the Hebrew language was considered absolutely indispensable for the bene- 
fit of the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, is rendered perfectly incontestable by the 
circumstance that those apocryphal gospels which were in common use among the 
heretical denominations of that region, were all in Hebrew; and the common argu- 
ment, that the Hebrew gospel spoken of by the Fathers was translated into Hebrew 
from Matthew's Greek, is itself an evidence that it was absolutely indispensable that 
the Jews should be addressed in writing, in that language alone. The objection, that 
the Hebrew original of Matthew was lost so soon, is easily answered by the fact, that 
the Jews were, in the course of the few first centuries, driven out of the land of their 
Fathers so completely, as to destroy the occasion for any such gospel in their lan- 
guage; for wherever they went, they soon made the dialect of the country in which 
they lived, their only medium of communication, written or spoken. 

Fabricius may be advantageously consulted by the scholar for a condensed view 
of the question of the original language of Matthew's gospel, and his references to 
authorities, ancient and modern, are numerous and valuable, besides those appended 
by his editors. — The most complete argument ever made out in defense of a Greek 
original, is that by Hug, in his Introduction, whose history of the progress of Grecian 
influence and language in Syria and Palestine, is both interesting and valuable on 
its own sccount, though made the inefficient instrument of supporting an error. He 
is very ably met by his English translator, Wait, in the introduction to the first 
volume. A very strong defense of a Greek original of Matthew, is also found in a little 
quarto pamphlet, containing the thesis of aGottingen student, on taking his degree in 
theology, in 1810. (Diss. Grit. Exeg. in serm. Matt. &c. Auct. Frid. Gul. Schubert.) 

II. What were the Materials of Matthew's Gospel ? 

The first apostolic evangelist, having been himself a personal 
companion and trusted minister of Jesus, an eyewitness of his ac- 
tions, and a favored hearer both of his public discourses, and of his 
private instructions and prayers, could not, while the best powers of 
life and mind remained, have failed of the most distinct impressions 
respecting the whole history of the public life of Jesus Christ. The 
period during which the apostles were person ally familiar with Jesus, 
probably not above three years, was so short that the memory of an 
active-minded, observing man, could not be overtasked or exhausted 
by the effort to preserve the knowledge of all the main particulars 
of the first gospel revelation. Matthew's previous habits of mind 
and occupation in life, moreover, were such as to fit him in an emi- 
nent degree for the work of recording facts, dates, places, and per- 
sons, with precision and trustworthy accuracy. As a publican, or 
collector of customs, in the great thoroughfare of the port of Caper- 
naum, he must have acquired such habits of minute personal obser- 



MATTHEW. 393 

vation, as would qualify him especially for the task of noting and 
recording all those small details and every-day scenes of the life of 
Christ, which are graphically sketched by his pen. He was not 
called on for this exertion of memory and powers of description, 
until many years after the occurrences ; for the apostles felt no espe- 
cial need of a written record in their original labors, which were 
confined to mere personal oral instruction, either by themselves or 
those directly commissioned by them. But when the extension of 
missionary fields, the multiplication of secondary and inferior labor- 
ers, and the confusion of revolutionary times had deprived them 
altogether of the means of personal communication with the ma- 
jority of converts, the necessity of an authorized apostolic record of 
the great scenes of redemption became manifest, and Matthew was 
doubtless moved to undertake the task of leaving the first record of 
inspiration for the Christians of Palestine, by the suggestion, and 
perhaps actual nomination of his brethren ; — his peculiar talents, and 
probably his previous habits, in some measure, marking him as the 
proper person to undertake the task. The particular form of expres- 
sion which he used in giving the actions and discourses of Jesus, 
was doubtless, in most instances, that which had already become the 
style of the gospel narrative, as so often repeated by the apostles in 
their ministrations in Jerusalem, and from this established form of 
presenting the facts, he would seldom feel disposed to depart. This 
becomes an important means of explaining the minute verbal coin- 
cidences between the different evangelists, and will be noticed in re- 
ference to this, as the subject of those coincidences comes up in the 
lives of the other gospel writers. 

This point has been made the subject of more discussion and speculation, within 
the last fifty years, among the critical and exegetical theologians of Europe, than 
any other subject connected with the New Testament. Those who wish to see the 
interesting details of the modes of explaining the coincidences between the three first 
evangelists, may find much on this subject in Michaelis's Introduction to the N. T., 
and especially in the translation by Bishop Marsh, who, in his notes on Vol. III. of 
Michaelis, has, after a very full discussion of all previous views of the origin of the 
gospels, gone on to build one of the most ingenious speculations on this point that 
was ever conceived on any subject, but which, in its very complicated structure, will 
present a most insuperable objection to its adoption by the vast majority of even his 
critical readers; and accordingly, though he has received universal praise for the 
great learning and ingenuity displayed in its formation, he has found few supporters, 
— perhaps none. His views are fullv examined and fairly discussed, by the anony- 
mous English translator of Dr. P. Schleiermacher's Commentary on Luke, in an in- 
troductory history of all the German speculations on this subject with which he has 
prefaced that work. The historical sketch there given of the progress of opinion on 
the sources and materials of the first three gospels, is probably the most complete 
account of the whole matter that is accessible in English, and displays a very minute 
acquaintance with the German theologians. Hug is also very full on this subject; 
and also discusses the views of Marsh and Michaelis. Hug's translator, Dr. Waitj 
has given, in an introduction to the first volume, a very interesting account of these 
critical controversies, and has large references to many German writers, not referred 
to by his author. Bertholdt and Bolten, in particular, are amply quoted and disputed 
by Wait. Bloomfield also, in the prefaces to the first and second volumes of his 
Critical Annotations on the N. T., gives much on the subject that can hardly be found 
any where else by a mere English reader. Large references might be made to tho 
works of the original German writers ; but it would require a very protracted state- 



394 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

merit, and would be useless to nearly all readers, because those to whom these rare 
and deep treasures of sacred knowledge are accessible, are doubtless better able to 
give an account of them than I am. It may be worth while to mention, however, 
that of all those statements of the facts on this subject with which I am acquainted, 
none gives a more satisfactory view, than a little Latin monograph, in a quarto of 
eighty pages, written by H. W. Halfeld, (a Gottingen theological student, and a pupil 
of Eichhorn. for whose views he has a great partiality,) for the Royal premium. Its 
title is — " Commentatio de origine quatuor evangeliorum, et de eorum canonica auc- 
toritate." (Gottingen, 1796.) The Bibliotheca Graeca of Fabricius (Harles's edition 
with notes) contains, in the chapters on the gospels, very rich references to the learned 
authors on these points. Lardner, in his History of the Apostles and Evangelists, 
takes a learned view of the question — " whether either of the three evangelists had 
seen the others' writings." This he gives after the lives of all four of the evangelists, 
and it may be referred to for a very full abstract of all the old opinions upon the 
question. Few of these points have any claim for a discussion in this book, but some 
things may very properly be alluded to, in the lives of the other evangelists, where 
a reference to their resemblances and common sources, will be essential to the com- 
pleteness of the narrative. 

III. At what time did Matthew write his Gospel? 

This is a question on which the records of antiquity afford no 
light, that can be trusted ; and it is therefore left to be settled entirely 
by internal evidence. There are indeed ancient stories, that he 
wrote it nine years after the ascension, — that he wrote it fifteen 
years after that event, — that he wrote it while Peter and Paul were 
preaching at Rome, — or when he was about leaving Palestine, &c, 
all which are about equally valuable. The results of the examina- 
tions of modern writers, who have labored to ascertain the date, have 
been exceedingly various, and only probabilities can be stated on 
this most interesting point of gospel history. The most probable 
conjecture on this point is one based on the character of certain pas- 
sages in Christ's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, which by 
their vividness in the evangelist's record, may be fairly presumed 
to have been written down when the crisis in Jewish affairs was 
highest, and most interesting ; and when the perilous condition of 
the innocent Christians must have been a matter of the deepest 
solicitude to the apostles, — so much as to deserve a particular pro- 
vision, by a written testimony of the impending ruin. A reference 
made also to a certain historical fact in Christ's prophecy, which is 
known on the testimony of Josephus, the Jewish historian, to have 
happened about this time, affords another important ground for fixing 
the date. This is the murder of Zachariah, the son of Barachiah, 
whom the Jews slew between the temple and the altar. He relates 
that the ferocious banditti, who had possessed themselves of the strong 
places of the city, tyrannized over the wretched inhabitants, execu- 
ting the most bloody murders daily, among them, and killing, upon 
the most unfounded accusations, the noblest citizens. Among those 
thus sacrificed by these bloody tyrants, Josephus very minutely nar- 
rates the murder of Zachariah, the son of Baruch, or Baruchus, a 
man of one of the first families, and of great wealth. His indepen- 
dence of character and freedom of speech, denouncing the base 
tyranny under which the city groaned, soon made him an object of 



MATTHEW. 395 

mortal hatred to the military rulers ; and his wealth also constituted 
an important incitement to his destruction. He was therefore seized, 
and on the baseless charge of plotting to betray the city into the 
hands of Vespasian and the Romans, was brought to a trial before a 
tribunal constituted by themselves, from the elders of the people, in 
the. temple, which they had profaned by making it their strong hold. 
The righteous Zachariah, knowing that his doom was irrevocably 
sealed, determined not to lay aside his freedom of speech, even in 
this desperate pass ; and when brought by his iniquitous accusers 
before the elders who constituted the tribunal, in all the eloquent 
energy of despair, after refuting the idle accusations against him, in 
few words, he turned upon his accusers his just indignation, and 
burst out into the most bitter denunciations of their wickedness and 
cruelty, mingling with these complaints, lamentations over the deso- 
late and miserable condition of his ruined country. The ferocious 
Zealots, excited to madness by his dauntless spirit of resistance, in- 
stantly drew their swords, and threateningly called out to the judges 
to condemn him at once. But even the instruments of their power 
were too much moved by the heroic innocence of the prisoner, to 
consent to this unjust doom ; and, in spite of these threats, acquitted 
him at once. The Zealots then burst out, at once, into fury against 
the judges, and rushed upon them to punish their temerity, in de- 
claring themselves willing to die with him, rather than unjustly pro- 
nounce sentence upon him. Two of the fiercest of the ruffians, 
seizing Zachariah, slew him in the middle of the temple, insulting 
his last agonies, and immediately hurled his warm corpse over the 
terrace of the temple, into the depths of the valley below. 

This was, most evidently, the horrible murder to which Jesus re- 
ferred in his prophecy. Performed thus, just on the eve of the last, 
utter ruin of the temple and the city, it is the only act that could be 
characterized as the crowning iniquity of all the blood unrighteously 
shed, from the earliest times downwards. It has sometimes been 
supposed by those ignorant of this remarkable event, that the 
Zachariah here referred to, was Zachariah, son of Jehoiada, who, 
in the reign of Joash, king of Judah, was stoned by the people, at 
the command of the king, in the outer court of the temple. But 
there are several circumstances connected with that event, which 
render it impossible to interpret the words of Jesus as referring 
merely to that, although some of the coincidences are truly amazing. 
That Zachariah was the son of Jehoiada, — this was the son of Ba- 
ruch, or Barachiah ; — that Zachariah was slain in the outer court, — 
this was slain " in the midst of the temple " — that is, " between the 
temple and the altar." Besides, Jesus evidently speaks of this Zach- 
ariah as a person yet to come. " Behold, I send to you prophets, 
and wise men, and writers ; and some of them you will kill and 
crucify ; and some of them you shall scourge and persecute ; that 
upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, 
52 



396 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah, the son 
of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. All 
these things shall come upon this generation." It is true that here, 
the writer, in recording the prophecy, now referring to its fulfilment, 
turns to the Jews, charging it upon them as a crime already past, 
when he writes, though not at the time when the Savior spoke ; and 
it is therefore, by a bold change of tense, that he represents Jesus 
speaking of a future event, as past. But the whole point of the dis- 
course plainly refers to future crimes, as well as to future punish- 
ment. The multitude who heard him, indeed, no doubt considered 
him as pointing, in this particular mention of names, only to a past 
event ; and notwithstanding the difference of minor circumstances, 
probably interpreted his words as referring to the Zachariah men- 
tioned in 2 Chronicles, who was stoned for his open rebukes of the 
sins of king and people ; — a conclusion, moreover, justified by the 
previous words of Jesus. He had just been denouncing upon them 
the sin of their fathers, as the murderers of the prophets, whose 
tombs they were now so ostentatiously building ; and if this wonder- 
ful accomplishment of his latter words had not taken place, it might 
reasonably be supposed, that he spoke of these future crimes only to 
show that their conduct would soon justify his imputation to them 
of their fathers' guilt ; that they would, during that same generation, 
murder similar persons, sent to them on similar divine errands, and 
thus become sharers in the crime of their fathers, who slew Zacha- 
riah, the son of Jehoiada, in the outer temple. But here now is the 
testimony of the impartial Josephus, a Jew, — himself a contempo- 
rary learner of all these events, and an eyewitness of some of them, 
who, without any bias in favor of Christ, but rather some prejudice 
against him, — in this case, too, without the knowledge of any such 
prophecy spoken or recorded, — gives a clear, definite statement of the 
outrageous murder of Zachariah, the son of Baruch or Barachiah, 
who, as he says, exactly, was " slain in the middle of the temple," — 
that is, "half-way between the temple-courts and the altar." He 
mentions it, too, as the last bloody murder of a righteous man for 
proclaiming the guilt of the wicked people ; and it therefore very 
exactly corresponds to the idea of the crime, which was " to fill up 
the measure of their iniquities." This event, thus proved to be the 
accomplishment of the prophecy of Jesus, and being shown, more- 
over, to have been expressed in this peculiar form, with a reference 
to the recent occurrence of the murder alluded to, — is therefore a 
most valuable means of ascertaining the date of this gospel. Jose- 
phus dates the murder of Zachariah in the month of October, in the 
thirteenth year of the reign of Nero, which corresponds to A. D. 66. 
The Apostle Matthew, then, must have written after this time ; and 
it must be settled by other passages, how long after he recorded the 
prophecy. 

The passage containing the prophecy of the death of Zachariah, is in Matthew 



MATTHEW. 397 

xxiii. 35; and that of " the abomination of the desolation," is in xxiv. 15. The pas- 
sage referred to, as describing the death of Zachariah the son of Jehoiada is in 
2 Chronicles, xxiv. 17—22. 

This interesting event is recorded by Josephus ; (Hist, of Jew. War, IV. v. 4 ;) and 
is one of the numerous instances which show the vast benefit which the Christian 
student of the New Testament may derive from the interesting and exact accounts 
of the Jewish historian. 

Another remarkable passage occurring in the prophecy of Jesus 
to his disciples, respecting the ruin of the temple, recorded by Mat- 
thew immediately after the discourse to the multitude, just given, 
affords reasonable ground for ascertaining this point in the history of 
this gospel. When Jesus was solemnly forewarning Peter, Andrew, 
James, and John, of the utter ruin of the temple and city, he men- 
tioned to them, at their request, certain signs, by which they might 
know the near approach of the coming judgment upon their coun- 
try, and might thus escape the ruin to which the guilty were doomed. 
After many sad predictions of personal suffering, which must befall 
them in the service, he distinctly announced to them a particular 
event, by the occurrence of which they might know that " the end 
was come," and might then, at the warning, flee from the danger to 
a place of safety. " When ye therefore shall see the abomination of 
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, (ivhoso readeth, let 
him understand,) then let them that are in Judea, flee to the moun- 
tains." This parenthetical expression is evidently thrown in by Mat- 
thew, as a warning to his readers, of an event which it behoved them 
to notice, as a token of a danger which they must escape. The ex- 
pression was entirely local and occasional, in its character, and could 
never have been made a part of the discourse by Jesus ; but the 
writer himself, directing his thoughts at that moment to the circum- 
stances of the time, called the attention of his Christian countrymen 
to the warning of Jesus, as something which they must understand 
and act upon immediately. The inquiry then arises as to the mean- 
ing of the expression used by Jesus in his prophecy. " The abomi- 
nation of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, as standing in 
the holy place," unquestionably refers to the horrible violation of the 
sanctity of the holy places of the temple, by the banditti, styling 
themselves " .Zealots for their country," who taking possession of the 
sanctuary, called in the savage Idumeans. a heathen people, who not 
only profaned the temple, by their unholy presence, but denied it 
with various excesses, committing there a horrible massacre, and 
flooding its pavements with blood. This was the abomination to 
which both Daniel and Matthew referred, and which the latter had 
in mind when he mentioned it to his brethren to whom he wrote, as 
the sign which they in reading should understand, and upon the 
warning, flee to the mountains. These horrible polluting excesses 
are the only events recorded in the history of the times, which can 
with such certainty and justice be pronounced the sad omens, to 
which Jesus and his evangelist referred. They are known to have 



398 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

occurred just before the death of Zachariah, and therefore also show 
this gospel to have been written after the date above fixed for that 
event. That it must have been written before the last siege of Jeru- 
salem, is furthermore manifest from the fact, that in order to have the 
effect of a warning, it must have been sent to those in danger before 
the avenues of escape from danger were closed up, as they certainly 
were after Titus had fully encompassed Jerusalem with his armies, 
and after the ferocious Jewish tyrants had made it certain death for 
any one to attempt to pass from Jerusalem to the Roman camp. To 
have answered the purpose for which it was intended, then, it must 
have been written at some period between the murder of Zachariah, 
which was in the winter of the year 66, and the march of Titus from 
Galilee to Jerusalem, before which place he pitched his camp in the 
month of March, in A. D. 70. The precise point of time in these 
three years it is impossible to fix ; but it was, very probably, within 
a short time after the commission of the bloody crimes to which he 
refers ; perhaps in the beginning of the year 67. 

This view of these passages and the circumstances to which they refer, with all 
the arguments which support the inferences drawn from them, may be found in 
Hug's introduction, (Vol. II. § 4.) He dates Matthew's gospel much later than most 
writers do ; it being commonly supposed to have been written in the year 41, or in 
the year 61. Michaelis makes an attempt to reconcile these conjectures, by supposing 
that it was written in Hebrew by Matthew, in A. D. 41, and translated in 61. But 
this is a mere guess, for which he does not pretend to assign a reason, and only says 
that he " can see no impropriety in supposing so." (Introd. III. iv. 1, 2.) 

Eichhorn suggests, that a reason for concluding that Matthew wrote his gospel a 
long time after the events which he relates, is implied in the expression used in chap, 
xxvii. 8, and xxviii. 15. " It is so called, to this day" — " It is commonly reported, to 
this day" — are expressions which, to any reader, convey the idea of many years in- 
tervening between the incidents and the time of their narration. In xxvii. 15, also, 
the explanation which he gives of the custom of releasing a prisoner to the Jews on 
the feast day, implies that the custom had been so long out of date, as to be probably 
forgotten by most of his readers, unless their memories were refreshed by this dis- 
tinct explanation. 

IV. With what special design was this Gospel written ? 

The circumstances of the times, as alluded to under the last in- 
quiry, afford much light on the immediate object which Matthew 
had in view, in writing his gospel. It is true, that common readers 
of the Bible seldom think of it as any thing else than a mere com- 
plete revelation made to all men, to lead them in the way of truth 
and salvation ; and few are prepared for an inquiry which shall take 
each portion of the scriptures by itself, and follow it through all its 
individual history, to the very source, — searching even into the im- 
mediate and temporary purpose of the inspired writers. Indeed, very 
many never think or know, that the historical portions of the New 
Testament were written with any other design, than to furnish to 
believers in Christ, through all ages, in all countries, a complete and 
distinct narrative of the events of the history of the foundation of 
their religion. But such a notion is perfectly discordant, not only 



MATTHEW. 399 

with the reasonable results of an accurate examination of these 
writings, in all their parts, but with the uniform and decided testi- 
mony of all the Fathers of the Christian church, who may be safely 
taken as important and trusty witnesses of the notions prevalent in 
their times, about the scope and original design of the apostolic re- 
cords. And though, as to the minute particulars of the history of 
the sacred canon, their testimony is worth little, yet on the general 
question, whether the apostles wrote with only a universal reference, 
or also with some special design connected with their own age and 
times, — the Fathers are as good authority as any writers that ever 
lived could be, on the opinions generally prevalent in their own day. 
In this particular case, however, very little reference can be made to 
external historical evidence, on the scope of Matthew's gospel ; be- 
cause very few notices, indeed, are found, of its immediate object, 
among the works of the early writers. But a view of the circum- 
stances of the times, before referred to, will illustrate many things 
connected with the plan of the work, and show a peculiar force in 
many passages, that would otherwise be little appreciated. 

It appears, on the unimpeachable testimony of the historians of 
those very times — of Josephus, who was a Jew, and of Tacitus and 
Suetonius, who were Romans — that both before and during the civil 
disturbances that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, there was a 
general impression among the Jews, that their long-foretold Savior 
and national restorer, the Messiah-king, would soon appear, and in 
the power of God, lead them on to a certain triumph over the seem- 
ingly invincible hosts, which even the boundless strength of Rome 
could send against them. In the expectation of the establishment 
of his glorious dominion, under which Israel should more than re- 
new the honors and the power of David and Solomon, they, without 
fear of the appalling consequences of their temerity, entered upon 
the hopeless struggle for independence ; and according to the testi- 
mony of the above-mentioned historians, this prevalent notion did 
much, not only to incite them to the contest, but also to sustain their 
resolution under the awful calamities which followed. The revolt 
thus fully begun, drew the whole nation together into a perfect union 
of feeling and interest ; all sharing in the popular fanaticism, became 
Jews again, whereby the Christian faith must have lost not a few of 
its professors. 

In these circumstances, and while such notions were prevalent, 
Matthew wrote his sketch of the life, teachings, and miracles of 
Jesus ; and throughout the whole of his narrative makes constant 
references, where the connexion can suggest, to such passages in the 
ancient holy books of the Hebrews, as were commonly supposed to 
describe the character and destiny of the Messiah. Tracing out in 
all these lineaments of ancient prophecy, the complete picture of the 
Restorer of Israel, he thus proved, by a comparison with the actual life 
of Jesus of Nazareth, that this was the person whose course through- 



400 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

out had been predicted by the ancient prophets. In this way, he 
directly attacked the groundless hopes, which the fanatical rebels had 
excited, showing, as he did, that he for whom they looked as the 
Deliverer of Israel from bondage, had already come, and devoted his 
life to the disenthralment and salvation of his people from their sins. 
A distinct and satisfactory proof, carried on through a chain of his- 
torical evidence to this effect, would answer the purpose as fully as 
the written truth could do, of overthrowing the baseless imposition 
with which the impudent Zealots were beguiling the hopes of a 
credulous people, and leading them on, willingly deceived, to their 
utter ruin. In this book, containing a clear prediction of the de- 
struction of the temple and Holy city, and of the whole religious and 
civil organization of the Jewish nation, many would find the re- 
vealed truth, making them wise in the way of salvation, though for* 
a time, all efforts might seem in vain ; for the literal fulfilment of 
these solemn prophecies thus previously recorded, afterwards ensu- 
ing, the truth of the doctrines of a spiritual faith connected with 
these words of prediction, would be strongly impressed on those 
whom the consummation of their country's ruin should lead to a 
consideration of the errors in which they had been long led astray. 
These prophecies promised, too, that after all these schemes of worldly 
triumph for the name and race of Israel, had sadly terminated in the 
utter, irretrievable ruin of temple and city, — and when the cessation 
of festivals, and the taking away of the daily sacrifice, had left the 
Jew so few material and formal objects to hang his faith and hopes 
on, — the wandering ones should turn to the pure spiritual truths, 
which would prove the best consolation in their hopeless condition, 
and own, in vast numbers, the name and faith of him, whose sorrowful 
life and sad death were but too mournful a type of the coming woes 
of those who rejected him. Acknowledging the despised and cruci- 
fied Nazarene as the true prophet and the long foretold Messiah -king 
of afflicted Judah, the heart-broken, wandering sons of Israel, should 
join themselves to that oft-preached heavenly kingdom of virtue and 
truth, whose only entrance was through repentance and humility. 
Hence those numerous quotations from the Prophets, and from the 
Psalms, which are so abundant in Matthew, and by which, even a 
common reader is able to distinguish the peculiar, definite object that 
this writer has in view : — to show to the Jews, by a minute detail, 
and a frequent comparison, that the actions of Jesus, even in the 
most trifling incidents, corresponded with those ancient passages of 
the scriptures, which foreshadowed the Messiah. In this particular, 
his gospel is clearly distinguished from the others, which are for the 
most part deficient in this distinct unity of design ; and where they 
refer to the grand object of representing Jesus as the Messiah, — the 
Son of God, — they do it in other modes, which show that it was for 
more general purposes, and directed to the conversion of Gentiles 
rather than Jews. This is the case with John, who plainly makes 



MATTHEW. 401 

this an essential object in his grand scheme ; but he combines the 
establishment of this great truth, with the more immediate occasions 
of subverting error and checking the progress of heretical opinions 
that aimed to detract from the divine prerogatives of Jesus. But 
John deals very little in those pointed and apt references to the testi- 
mony of the Hebrew scriptures, which so distinguish the writings of 
Matthew ; he evidently apprehends that those to whom he writes, will 
be less affected by appeals of that kind, than by proofs drawn from 
his actions and discourses, and by the testimony of the great, the 
good, and the inspired, among those who saw and heard him. The 
work of Matthew was, on the other hand, plainly designed to bring 
to the faith of Jesus, those who were already fully and correctly in- 
structed in all that related to the divinely exalted character of the 
Messiah, and only needed proof that the person proposed to them as 
the Redeemer thus foretold, was in all particulars such as the unerr- 
ing word of ancient prophecy required. Besides this object of con- 
verting the unbelieving Jews, its tendency was also manifestly to 
strengthen and preserve those who were already professors of the 
faith of Jesus ; and such, through all ages, has been its mighty scope, 
enlightening the nations with the clearest historical testimony ever 
borne to the whole life and actions of Jesus Christ, and rejoicing the 
millions of the faithful with the plainest record of the events that se- 
cured their salvation. 

The substance of this view of the scope of Matthew's gospel is given by Hug ; and 
to him belongs the merit of originating it in its present distinctness. (Hug's Intro- 
duction, II. § 6.) 

One of the most ancient accounts which antiquity has preserved 
of Matthew's life, after he ceases to be mentioned in the New Tes- 
tament, is — that " he wrote his gospel in the language of his coun- 
try, at the time when, having before preached to the Hebrews, he 
was about to go to others." No very ancient writer gives any 
account of the direction in which he then journeyed ; but there is 
no occasion to doubt that he followed the general eastward course 
of the Galilean apostles within the bounds of the Parthian empire. 
With this general view all the narrations of those comparatively 
modern writers who give any account of the apostles, happily co- 
incide. Asiatic Ethiopia, Parthia, and Persia, are all the countries 
mentioned as the scene of his missionary labors, but statements so 
vague and unauthorized, afford little satisfaction to the inquirer. 

Ethiopia.— The, earliest testimony on this point, in any ecclesiastical history, is that 
of Socrates, (A. D. 425,) a Greek writer, who says only, that " Avhen the apostles di- 
vided the heathen world, by lot, among themselves,— to Matthew was allotted Ethio- 
pia." This is commonly supposed to mean Nubia, or the country directly south of 
Egypt. But this common error arises from that profound ignorance of the true ap- 
plication of ancient geographical terms, which so generally prevails among those who 



402 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ought to know better, and which makes so much trouble to a critical investigation. 
Ethiopia was a term very commonly applied to all the desert regions of Asia, west and 
south of the Euphrates, and includes most of Arabia. Ru£nus (A. D. 390) is the 
•earliest who states Ethiopia to have been Matthew's field. (Book X.) Socrates 
(A. D. 439) says the same. (Hist. I. 19.) Paulinus (A. D. 393) says that he died 
among the Parthians. (Carm. 26.) Heracleon is quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus, 
(A. D. 200,) as saying that Matthew died, not by any martyrdom, but in peace. 
(Stromat. 4.) The calendar of the emperor Basil agrees to this. The monks and 
martyrologists, however, have a fable of his martyrdom by fire. The common Greek 
calendar of the saints is the earliest authority for this, naming the sixteenth of No- 
vember as the day of his martyrdom. Nicephorus Callistus has a story that the fire 
kindled for Matthew's destruction was extinguished at his prayers, and that he at last 
died in peace. (Hist. Ecc. II. 41.) Floras, Usuardus, Ado, and. the. other Latin fable- 
mongers, agree that he died by martyrdom. (Natalis Alexander, Hist. Ecc. I. viii. 8.) 
There is also a curious little narrative of the life of Matthew, preserved in Arabic, 
edited by Kirstenius, which, after stating among the details of his early life that he was 
born at'Nazareth, in Galilee, his father Ducv, and his mother Karutia being of the 
tribe of Issachar, — mentions further, that after preaching the gospel twelve years in 
Judea, he next journeyed eastward into Asiatic Ethiopia, and there suffered martyr- 
dom at the city of Naddaver, or, as other accounts say, at Hierapolis, in Parthia. — It 
is certainly an interesting fact, that among the Arabians themselves, inhabitants of 
the very region in a part of which Matthew is supposed to have labored, such a story 
should have been preserved concerning him ; and though no faith whatever can 
safely be put in the statements, they show that there was an ancient belief that he 
actually lived in the country named. Clemens Alexandrinus, the earliest Father 
who pretends to give any account of Matthew's life, says, that he was sparing in his 
diet, and used nothing as food but seeds, berries, and pulse. (Paed. ii. 1.) On what 
authority this trifling circumstance is stated by a writer so long after the apostolic 
times as Clemens Alexandrinus, it is impossible to say ; but the most insignificant 
statement which is not absolutely absurd, relating to the life of an apostle of whose 
history Christian antiquity has left so little, is worth the notice of the apostolic his- 
torian. (See Cave. Hist. Lit. p. 13.) 

But no such idle invention, or dim traditionary story, can add 
any thing to the interest which this apostolic writer has secured 
for himself, by his noble Christian record. Not even an authentic 
history of miracles and martyrdom, could increase his enduring 
greatness. The tax-gatherer of Galilee has left a monument, on 
which cluster the combined honors of a literary and a holy fame, 
— a monument which insures him a wider, more lasting, and far 
higher glory, than the noblest achievments of the Grecian or Latin 
writers, in his or any age, could acquire for them. Not Herodotus 
nor Livy, — not Demosthenes nor Cicero, — not Homer nor Yirgil 
—can find a reader to whom the despised Matthew's simple work 
is not familiar ; nor did the highest hope or the proudest concep- 
tion of the brilliant Horace, when exulting in the extent and dura- 
bility of his fame, equal the boundless and eternal range of Mat- 
thew's honors. What would Horace have said, if he had been 
told that among the most despised of those superstitious and bar- 
barian Jews, whom his own writings show to have been prover- 
bially scorned, would arise one, within thirty or forty years, who, 
degraded by his vocation, even below his own countrymen's 
standard of respectability, would, by a simple record in humble 



MATTHEW. 403 

prose, first written in an uncultivated and soon-forgotten dialect, 
and afterwards perpetuated only through the misty medium of a 
nameless translation, " complete a monument more enduring than 
brass, — more lofty than the pyramids, — outlasting all the storms 
of revolution and of disaster, — all the course of ages and the 
flight of time V Yet such was the result of the unpretending 
effort of Matthew ; and it is not the least among the miracles of 
the religion whose foundation he commemorated and secured, that 
such a wonder in fame should have been achieved by it. 

53 



THOMAS, DIDYMUS. 



The second name of this apostle is only the Greek translation 
of the former, which is the Syriac and Hebrew word for a " twin- 
brother," from which, therefore, one important circumstance may 
be safely inferred about the birth of Thomas, though, unfortu- 
nately, beyond this, antiquity bears no record whatever of his cir- 
cumstances previous to his admission into the apostolic fraternity. 

Nor is the authentic history of the apostles, much more satis- 
factory in respect to subsequent parts of Thomas's history. A 
very few brief but striking incidents, in which he was particularly 
engaged, are specified by John alone, who seems to have been dis- 
posed to supply, by his gospel, some characteristic account of seve- 
ral of the apostles, who had been noticed only by name, in the 
writings of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Those in particular who 
receive this peculiar notice . from him, are Andrew, Philip, Na- 
thanael, Thomas, and John himself, — of all whom, as well as of 
Peter, are thus learned some interesting matters, which, though 
apparently so trivial, do much towards giving a distinct impression 
of some of the leading traits in their characters. Among those 
facts thus preserved respecting Thomas, however, there is not one 
which gives any account of his parentage, rank in life, or previ- 
ous occupation ; nor do any other authentic sources bring any 
more facts to view on these points. The only conclusion pre- 
sented even by conjecture, about his early history, is, that he was 
a publican, like Matthew, — a notion which is found in some of the 
Fathers, — grounded, no doubt, altogether on the circumstance, that 
in all the gospel lists, he is paired with Matthew, as though there 
were some close connexion between them. This is only a con- 
jecture, and one with even a more insignificant basis than most 
trifling speculations of this sort, and therefore deserving no regard 
whatever. Of the three incidents commemorated by John, two, 
at least, are such as to present Thomas in a light by no means 
advantageous to his character as a ready and zealous believer in 
Jesus ; but on both these occasions he is represented as expressing 



THOMAS. 405 

opinions which prove him to have heen very slow, not only in 
believing, but in comprehending spiritual truths. The first inci- 
dent is that mentioned by John in his account of the death of 
Lazarus, where he describes the effect produced on the disciples 
by the news of the decease of their friend, and by the declaration 
made at the same time by Jesus, of his intention to go into Judea 
again, in spite of all the mortal dangers to which he was there 
exposed by the hatred of the Jews, who, enraged at his open de* 
clarations of his divine character and origin, were determined to 
punish with death, one who advanced claims which they pro- 
nounced absolutely blasphemous. This deadly hatred they had 
so openly expressed, that Jesus himself had thought it best to re- 
tire awhile from that region, and to avoid exposing himself to the 
fatal effects of such malice, until the other great duties of his 
earthly mission had been executed, so as to enable him, at last, to 
proceed to the bloody fulfilment of his mighty task, with the as- 
surance that he had finished the work which his Father gave him 
to do. 

But in spite of the pressing remonstrances of his disciples, Jesus 
expressed his firm resolution to go, in the face of all mortal dan- 
gers, into Judea, there to complete the divine work which he had 
onlybegun. Thomas, finding his Master determined to encounter 
the danger, which, by once retreating from it for a time, he had 
acknowledged to be imminent, resolved not to let him go on alone ; 
and turning to his fellow-disciples, said — " Let us also go, that we 
may die with him." The proposal thus decidedly made, shows a 
noble resolution in Thomas, to share all the fortunes of him to 
whom he had joined himself, and presents his character in a far 
more favorable light than the other passages in which his conduct 
is commemorated. While the rest were fearfully expostulating on 
the peril of the journey, he boldly proposed to his companions to 
follow unhesitatingly the footsteps of their Master, whithersoever 
he might go, — thus evincing a spirit of far more exalted devotion 
to the cause 

The view here taken differs from the common interpretation of the passage, but it 
is the view which has seemed best supported by the whole tenor of the context, as 
may be decided by a reference to the passage in its place, (John xi. 16.) The evi- 
dence on both views can not be better presented than in Bloomfield's note on this 
passage, which is here extracted entire. 

" Here again the commentators differ in opinion. Some, as Grotius, Poole, Ham- 
mond, Whitby, and others, apply the avrov to Lazarus, and take it as equivalent to 
'let us go and die together with him.' But it is objected by Maldonati and Lampe, 
that Lazarus was already dead; and die like him they could not, because a violent 
death was the one in Thomas's contemplation. But these arguments seem inconclu- 



406 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

sive. It may with more justice be objected that the sense seems scarcely natural. I 
prefer, with many ancient and modern interpreters, to refer the aiTov to Jesus, ' let us 
go and die with him.' Maldonati and Doddridge regard the words as indicative of 
the most affectionate attachment to our Lord's person. But this is going into the other 
extreme. It seems prudent to hold a middle course, with Calvin, Tarnovius, Lyser, 
Bucer, Lampe, and (as it should appear) Tittman. Thomas could not dismiss the 
idea of the imminent danger to which both Jesus and they would be exposed, by 
going into Judea; and with characteristic bluntness, and some portion of ill humor, 
(though with substantial attachment to his Master's person,) he exclaims — ' Since 
our Master will expose himself to such imminent, and, as it seems, unnecessary 
danger, let us accompany him, if it be only to share his fate.' Thus there is no oc- 
casion, with Markland and Foster, apud Bowyer, to read the words interrogatively." 
(Bloomfield's Annotations, vol. III. p. 426, 427.) 

In John's minute account of the parting- discourses of Christ at 
the Last Supper, it is mentioned that Jesus, after speaking- of his 
departure, as very near, in order to comfort his disciples, told them, 
he was going " to prepare a place for them, in his Father's house, 
where were many mansions." Assuring them of his speedy re- 
turn to bring them to these mansions of rest, he said to them — 
" Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." But so lost, for 
the time, were all these words of instruction and counsel, that not 
one of his followers seems to have rightly apprehended the force 
of this remark ; and Thomas was probably only expressing the 
general doubt, when he replied to Jesus, in much perplexity at the 
language — " Lord, we know not whither thou goest ; and how can 
we know the way ?" Jesus replied — " I am the way, the truth, 
and the life : no man comes to the Father but by me." But equally 
vain was this new illustration of the truth. The remark which 
Philip next made, begging that they might have their curiosity 
gratified by a sight of the Father, shows how idly they were all 
still dreaming of a worldly, tangible, and visible kingdom, and 
how uniformly they perverted all the plain declarations of Jesus, 
to a correspondence with their own pre-conceived, deep-rooted no- 
tions. Nor was this miserable error removed, till the descent of 
that Spirit of Truth, which their long-suffering and ever watchful 
Lord invoked, to teach their still darkened souls the things which 
they would not now see, and to bring to their remembrance all 
which they now so little heeded. 

The remaining incident respecting this apostle, which is re- 
corded by John, further illustrates the state of mind in which each 
new revelation of the divine power and character of Jesus found 
his disciples. None of them expected his resurrection ; — none 
would really believe it, until they had seen him with their own 
eyes. Thomas therefore showed no remarkable skepticism, when, 
hearing from the others, that one evening, when he was not pre- 



THOMAS. 407 

sent, Jesus had actually appeared alive among them, he declared 
his absolute unbelief, — protesting, that far from suffering him- 
self to be as lightly deceived as they had been, he would give no 
credit to any evidence but that of the most unquestionable charac- 
ter, — that of seeing and touching those bloody marks which would 
characterize, beyond all possibility of mistake, the crucified body 
of Jesus. " Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, 
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand 
into his side, I will not believe." After eight days, the disciples 
were again assembled, and on this occasion Thomas was with 
them. While they were sitting, as usual, with doors closed for 
fear of the Jews, Jesus again, in the same sudden and mysterious 
manner as before, appeared all at once in the midst, with his 
solemn salutation — " Peace be with you !" Turning at once to 
the unbelieving disciple, whose amazed eyes now for the first time 
fell on the body of his risen Lord, he said to him — " Thomas ! 
Put thy finger here, and see my hands ; and put thy hand here, 
and thrust it into my side ; and be not faithless, but believing." 
The stubbornly skeptical disciple was melted at the sight of these 
mournful tokens of his Redeemer's dying agonies, and in a burst 
of new, exalted devotion, he exclaimed—" My Lord ! and my God !" 
The pierced hands and side showed beyond all question the body 
of his " Lord ;" and the spirit that could, of itself, from such a 
death, return to perfect life, could be nothing else than " God." 
The reply of Jesus to this expression of faith and devotion, con- 
tained a deep reproach to this slow-believing disciple, who would 
take no evidence whatever of the accomplishment of his Master's 
dying words, except the sight of every tangible thing that could 
identify his person. " Thomas ! because thou has seen me, thou 
hast believed : blessed are they, who though not seeing, yet be- 
lieve." 

" Put thy finger here." — The phrase seems to express the graphic force of the origi- 
nal, much more justly than the common translation — " reach hither thy hand." The 
adverb of place, w<fe, gives the idea of the very place where the wounds had been 
made, and brings to the reader's mind the attitude and gesture of Jesus, with great 
distinctness. The adverb "here" refers to the print of the nails; and Jesus holds out 
his hand to Thomas, as he says -these words, telling him to put his finger into the 
wound. 

Not seeing, yet believe. — This is the form of expression best justified by the indefi- 
niteness of the Greek aorists, (especially in the participle, as is the case with the first 
of the verbs here,) whose very name implies this unlimitedness in respect to time. 
The limitation to the past, implied in the common translation, is by no means required 
by the original; but it is left so vague, that the action may be referred to the present 
and the future also. 

Thomas is also barely mentioned in the last chapter of John's 



408 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

gospel, among those who went out with Peter on the fishing 
excursion upon the lake, during which they met with Jesus ; 
but beyond this, the writings of the New Testament give not the 
least account of Thomas, and his subsequent history can only be 
uncertainly traced in the dim and dark stories of tradition, or in 
the contradictory records of the Fathers. Different accounts state 
that he preached the gospel in Parthia, — Media, — Persia, — Ethio- 
pia, — and at last, India. A great range of territories is thus spread 
out before the investigator, but the traces of the apostle's course 
and labors are both few and doubtful. Those of the Fathers 
who mention his journeys into these countries, give no particulars 
whatever of his labors ; and all that is now believed respecting 
these things, is derived from other, and perhaps still more uncer- 
tain sources. 

India is constantly asserted by the Fathers, from the beginning 
of the third century, to have very early received the gospel, and 
this apostle is named as the person through whom this evangeli- 
zation was effected ; but this evidence alone would be entitled to 
very little consideration, except from the circumstance, that from 
an early period, to this day, there has existed in India a large body 
of Christians, who give themselves the name of " St. Thomas's 
Christians," of whose antiquity proofs are found in the testimony, 
both of very ancient and very modern travelers. They still retain 
many traditions of the person whom they claim as their founder, — 
of his place of landing, — the towns he visited, — the churches he 
planted, — his places of residence and his retreats for private devo- 
tion, — the very spot of his martyrdom, and his grave. A tradition, 
however, floating down unwritten for fifteen centuries, cannot be 
received as very good evidence ; and the more minute such stories 
are in particulars, the more suspicious they are in their character 
for truth. But in respect to the substance of this, it may well be 
said, that it is by no means improbable, and is in the highest de- 
gree consistent with the views already taken, in former parts of 
this work, of the eastward course of the apostles, after the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem. The great body of them taking refuge at 
Babylon, within the limits of the great Parthian empire, the more 
adventurous might follow the commercial routes still farther east- 
ward, to the mild and generally peaceful nations of distant India, 
whose character for civilization and partial refinement was such 
as to present many facilities for the introduction and wide diffusion 
of the gospel among therm These views, in connexion with the 



THOMAS. 409 

great amount of respectable evidence from various other sources, 
make the whole outline of the story of Thomas's labors in India 
very possible, and even highly probable. 

The earliest evidence among the Fathers that has ever been quoted on this point, 
is that of Pantaenus, of Alexandria, whose visit to what was then called India, has 
been mentioned above, (page 384 ;) but, as has there been observed, the investiga- 
tions of Michaelis and others, have made it probable that Arabia-Felix was the coun- 
try there intended by that name. The first distinct mention made of any eastward 
movement of Thomas, that can be found, is by Origen, who is quoted by Eusebius, 
(Hist. Ecc, III. 1,) as testifying, that when the apostles separated to go into all the 
world, and preach the gospel, Parthia was assigned to Thomas ; and Origen is repre- 
sented as appealing to the common tradition, for the proof of this particular fact. Je- 
rome speaks of Thomas, as preaching the gospel in Media and Persia. In another 
passage he specifies India, as his field; and in this he is followed by most of the later 
writers, — Ambrose, Nicephorus, Baronius, Natalis, &c. Chrysostom (orat. in xii. 
apost.) says that Thomas preached the gospel in Ethiopia. As the geography of all 
these good Fathers seems to have been somewhat confused, all these accounts may 
be considered very consistent with each other. Media and Persia were both in the 
Parthian empire ; and all very distant countries, east and south, were, by the Greeks, 
vaguely denominated India and Ethiopia ; just as all the northern unknown regions 
of Asia were generally called Scythia. 

Natalis Alexander sums up all the accounts given by the Fathers, by saying, that 
Thomas preached the gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Brachmans, Indians, 
and the other neighboring nations, subject to the empire of the Parthians. He quotes 
as his authorities, besides the above-mentioned Fathers, — Sophronius, (A. D. 390,) 
Gregory Nazianzen, (A. D. 370,) Ambrose, (A. D. 370,) Gaudentius, (A. D. 387.) 
The author of the imperfect work on Matthew, (A. D. 560,) says, that Thomas found 
in his travels the three Magi, who adored the infant Jesus, and having baptized them, 
associated them with him, in his apostolic labors. Theodoret, (A. D. 423,) Gauden- 
tius, Asterius, (A. D. 320,) and others, declare Thomas to have died by martyrdom. 
Sophronius (A. D. 390) testifies that Thomas died at Calamina, in India. This Ca- 
lamina is now called Malipur, and in commemoration of a tradition, preserved, as 
we are told, on the spot, to this effect, the Portuguese, when they setup their dominion 
in India, gave it the name of the city of St. Thomas. The story reported by the Por- 
tuguese travelers and historians is, that there was a tradition current among the 
people of the place, that Thomas was there martyred, by being thrust through with a 
lance. (Natalis Alexander, Hist. Ecc, vol. IV. pp. 32, 33.) 

A new weight of seemingly valuable testimony has been added to all this, by the 
statements of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, who, in modern times, has traced out all these 
traditions on the spot referred to, and has given a very full account of the " Chris- 
tians of St. Thomas," in his " Christian researches in India." But it is perfectly 
manifest from Dr. Buchanan's own statements, that these Christians of St. Thomas 
must have derived their faith from some other than an apostolic source. The fact 
that they maintain the Nestorian heresy, gives strong reason for supposing that 
Christianity was not propagated among them till after the time of Nestorius, (A. D. 
428.) They also have in all their churches the picture of the Virgin Mary and the 
child Jesus, — a circumstance which still farther condemns their pretensions ; for 
what Protestant is willing to believe that an apostolic founder could have countenan- 
ced a superstition so nearly approaching to idolatry'? Still, though we may justly 
deny that these Christians derive their true origin from Thomas the apostle, the mere 
fact that his name is preserved with such peculiar reverence in the East to this day, 
is an agreeable confirmation of the general ancient testimony of the fact that Thomas 
journeyed far eastward after the great dispersion. The bare selection of his name, 
as a plausible claim to an apostolic foundation, implies the certainty, or at least the 
general belief, that he did labor within or near the boundaries of India. 

On this evidence may be founded a rational belief, though not 
an absolute certainty, that Thomas actually did preach the gospel 
in distant eastern countries, and there met with such success as 



410 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

to leave the lasting tokens of his labors, to preserve through a 
course of ages, in united glory, his own name and that of his 
Master. In obedience to His last earthly command, he went to 
teach " nations unknown to Caesar," proclaiming to them the mes- 
sage of divine love, — solitary and unsupported, save by the presence 
of Him, who had promised to " be with him always, even to the 

END OF THE WORLD." 






JAMES, THE LITTLE; 

THE SON OF ALPHEUS. 



HIS NAME. 



It will be observed, no doubt, by all readers, that the most im- 
portant inquiry suggested in the outset of many of these apostolic 
biographies, is about the name and personal identification of the 
individual subject of each life. This difficulty is connected with 
peculiarities of those ancient times and half-refined nations, that 
may not, perhaps, be very readily appreciated by those who have 
been accustomed only to the definite nomenclature of families and 
individuals, which is universally adopted among civilized nations at 
the present day. With all the refined nations of European race, 
the last part of a person's name marks his family, and is supposed 
to have been borne by his father, and by his ancestors, from the 
time when family names were first adopted. The former part of 
his name, with equal definiteness, marks the individual, and gene- 
rally remains fixed from the time when he first received his name. 
Whenever any change takes place in any part of his appellation, 
it is generally done in such a formal and permanent mode, as never 
to make any occasion for confusion in respect to the individual, 
among those concerned with him. But no such decisive limitation 
of names to persons, prevailed among even the most refined nations 
of the apostolic age. The name given to a child at birth, indeed, 
was very uniformly retained through life ; but as to the other parts 
of his appellation, it was taken, according to circumstances, chance, 
or caprice, from the common name of his father, — from some per- 
sonal peculiarity, — from his business, — from his general charac- 
ter, — or from some particular incident in his life. The name 
thus acquired, to distinguish him from others bearing his former 
name, was used either in connexion with that, or without ; and 
sometimes two or more such distinctive appellations belonged to 
the same man, all or any of which were used together with the 
former, or separate from it, without any definite rule of applica- 
tion. To those acquainted with the individual so variously named, 
54 



412 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

and contemporary with him, no confusion was made by this mul- 
tiplicity of words ; and when any thing was recorded respecting 
him, it was done with the perfect assurance, that all who then 
knew him, would find no difficulty in respect to his personal 
identity, however he might be mentioned. But in later ages, 
when the personal knowledge of all these individual distinctions 
has been entirely lost, great difficulties necessarily arise on these 
points, — difficulties which, after tasking historical and philological 
criticism to the highest efforts, in order to settle the facts, are, for 
the most part, left in absolute uncertainty. Thus, in respect to 
the twelve apostles, it will be noticed, that this confusion of names 
throws great doubt over many important questions. Among some 
of them, too, these difficulties are partly owing to other causes. 
Their names were originally given to them, in the peculiar lan- 
guage of Palestine ; and in the extension of their labors and fame, 
to people of different languages, of a very opposite character, their 
names were forced to undergo new distortions, by being variously 
translated, or changed in termination ; and many of the original 
Hebrew sounds, in consequence of being altogether unpronounce- 
able by Greeks and Romans, were variously exchanged for softer 
and smoother ones, which, in their dissimilar forms, would lose 
almost all perceptible traces of identity with each other, or with 
the original word. 

These difficulties are in no case quite so prominent and serious 
as in regard to the apostle who is the subject of this particular 
biography. Bearing the same name with the elder son of Zebedee, 
he was of course necessarily designated by some additional title, 
to distinguish him from the other great apostb James. This title 
was not always the same, nor was it uniform in its principle of 
selection. On all the apostolic lists, he is designated by a reference 
to the name of his father, as is the first James. As the person 
first mentioned by this name is called James, the son of Zebedee, 
the second is called James, the son of Alpheus ; nor is there, in the 
enumeration of the apostles by Matthew, Mark, or Luke, any refer- 
ence to another distinctive appellation of this James. But in one 
passage of Mark's account of the crucifixion, it is mentioned, that 
among the women present, was Mary, the mother of James the 
Little, and of Joses. In what sense this, word little is applied, — 
whether of age, size, or dignity, — it is utterly impossible to ascer- 
tain at this day ; for the original word is known to have been ap- 
plied to persons, in every one of these senses, even in the New 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 413 

Testament. But, however this may be, a serious question arises, 
whether this James the Little was actually the same person as the 
James, called, on the apostolic lists, the son of Alpheus. In the 
corresponding passage in John's gospel, this same Mary is called 
Mary the wife of Clopas ; and by Matthew and Mark, the same 
James is mentioned as the brother of Joses, Juda, and Simon. In 
the apostolic lists given by Luke, both in his gospel and in the 
Acts of the Apostles, Juda is also called " the brother of James f 
and in his brief general epistle, the same apostle calls himself " the 
brother of James." In the beginning of the epistle to the Gala- 
tians, Paul, describing his own reception at Jerusalem, calls him 
" James the brother of our Lord ;" and by Matthew and Mark he, 
with his brothers, Joses, Juda, and Simon, is also called the brother 
of Jesus. From all these seemingly opposite and irreconcilable 
statements, arise three inquiries, which can, it is believed, be so 
answered, as to attribute to the subject of this article every one of 
the circumstances connected with James, in these different stories. 

James the Little. — This adjective is here applied to him in the positive degree, be- 
cause it is so in the original Greek, ('IdK«/?os 6 piKpds, Mark xv. 40,) and this expres- 
sion, too, is in accordance with English forms of expression. The comparative 
form, "James, the Less" seems to have originated in the Latin Vulgate, "Jacobus 
Minor," which maybe well enough in that language; but in English, there is no 
reason why the original word should not be literally and faithfully expressed. The 
Greek original of Mark calls him " James, the Little" which implies simply, that he 
was a little man; whether little in size, or age, or dignity, every one is left to guess 
for himself; — but it is more accordant with usage, in respect to such names, in 
those times, to suppose that he was a short man, and. was thus named to distinguish 
him from the son of Zebedee, who was probably taller. The term thus applied by 
Mark, would be understood by all to whom he wrote, and implied no disparagement 
to his mental eminence. But the term applied, in the sense of a smaller dignity, is 
so slighting to the character of James, who, to the last day of his life, maintained, ac- 
cording to both Christian and Jewish history, the most exalted fame for religion and 
intellectual worth, — that it must have struck all who heard it thus used, as a term 
altogether unjust to his true eminence. His weight of character in the counsels of 
the apostles, soon after the ascension, and the manner in which he is alluded to in 
the accounts of his death, make it very improbable that he was younger than the 
other James. 

First : Was James the son of Alpheus the same person as James 
the son of Clopas ? The main argument for the identification of 
these names, rests upon the similarity of the consonants in the 
original Hebrew word which represents them both, and which, ac- 
cording to the fancy of a writer, might be represented in Greek, 
either by the letters of Alpheus or of Clopas. This proof, of 
course, can be fully appreciated only by those who are familiar 
with the power of the letters of the Oriental languages, and know 
the variety of modes in which they are frequently given in the 
Greek, and other European languages. The convertibility of cer- 



414 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tain harsh sounds of the dialects of southwestern Asia, into either 
hard consonants, or smooth vowel utterances, is sufficiently well 
known to Biblical scholars, to make the change here supposed ap- 
pear perfectly probable and natural to them. It will be observed 
by common readers, that all the consonants in the two words are 
exactly the same, except that Clopas has a hard C, or K, in the 
beginning, and that Alpheus has the letter P aspirated by an H, 
following it. Now, both of these differences can, by a reference 
to the original Hebrew word, be shown to be only the results of 
the different modes of expressing the same Hebrew letters ; and 
the words thus expressed may, by the established rules of etymo- 
logy, be referred to the same Oriental root. These two names, 
then, Alpheus and Clopas^ may be safely assigned to the same 
person ; and Mary the wife of Clopas and the mother of James 
the Little, and of Joses, was, no doubt, the mother of him who is 
called " James the son of Alpheus." 

Clopas and Alpheus. — It should be noticed, that in the common translation of the 
New Testament, the former of these two words is very absurdly expressed by Cleo- 
phas, whereas the original (John xix. 25) is simply KXwTras, (Clopas.) This is a 
totally different name from Cleopas, (Luke xxiv. 18, K^sdiras,) which is probably 
Greek in its origin, and abridged from Cleopater, (KXediraTpos,) just as Antics from 
Antipaler, Alexas from Alexander, Artemas from Artemonius, and many other similar 
instances, in which the Hellenizing Jews abridged the terminations of Greek and 
Roman words, to suit the genius of the Hebrew tongue. But Clopas, being very dif- 
ferently spelt in the Greek, must be traced to another source; and the circumstances 
which connect it with the name Alpheus, suggesting that, like that, it might have a 
Hebrew origin, directs the inquirer to the original form of that word. The Hebrew 
"'s'pri (hhalphai) may be taken as the word from which both are derived; each being 
such an expression of the original, as the different writers might choose for its fair 
representation. The first letter in the word, n, (hhaith,) has in Hebrew two entirely- 
distinct sounds; one a strong guttural H, and the other a deeply aspirated KH. 
These are represented in Arabic by two different letters, but in Hebrew, a single 
character is used to designate both ; consequently the names which contain this letter, 
may be represented in Greek and other languages, by two different letters, according 
as they were pronounced ; and where the original word which contained it, was 
sounded differently, by different persons, under different circumstances, varying its 
pronunciation with the times and the fashion, even in the same word, it would be dif- 
ferently expressed in Greek. Any person familiar with the peculiar changes made 
in those Old Testament names which are quoted in the New, will easily apprehend 
the possibility of such a variation in this. Thus, in Stephen's speech, (Acts vii.) 
Haran is called Charran ; and other changes of the same sort occur in the same chap- 
ter. The name Anna, (Luke ii. 36,) is the same with Hannah, (i Samuel i. 2 ;) which 
in the Hebrew has this same strongly aspirated H, that begins the word in question, 
— and the same, too, which in Acts vii. 2, 4, is changed into the strong Greek Ch ; 
while all its harshness is lost, and the whole aspiration removed, in Anna. These in- 
stances, taken out of many similar ones, may justify to common readers, the seem- 
ingly great change of letters in the beginning of Alpheus and Clopas. The other 
changes of vowels are of no account, since in the Oriental languages particularly, 
these are not fixed parts of the word, but mere modes of uttering the consonants, and 
vary throughout the verbs and nouns, in almost every inflexion these parts of speech 
undergo. These, therefore, are not considered radical or essential parts of the word, 
and are never taken into such consideration in tracing a word from one language tc 
another, — the consonants being the fixed parts on which etymology depends. The 
change also from the aspirate Ph } to the smooth mute P, is also so very common 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 415 

in the Oriental languages, and even in the Greek, that it need not be regarded in 
identifying the word. 

The learned Matthew Poole confirms this view, as well as the great Lightfoot, in 
observing that in the Hebrew Talmudists the word "^n {hhalphai) often occurs, and 
is capable of variation in the reading, either into Alphaeus or Clopas. Lightfoot 
insists that the same person is meant, — the different evangelists merely presenting 
two forms of the same name. (See both Poole and Lightfoot, on Matt. x. 3, and 
Luke xxiv. 18.) ' 

Taking into consideration then, the striking and perfect affinities of the two words, 
and adding to these the great body of presumptive proofs, drawn from the other cir- 
cumstances that show or suggest the identity of persons,— and noticing, moreover, 
the circumstance, that while Matthew, Mark, and Luke, speak of Alpheus, they never 
speak of Clopas, — and that John, who alone uses the name Clopas, never mentions 
Alpheus, — it seems very reasonable to adopt the conclusion, that the last evangelist 
means the same person as the former. 

Second : Was James the son of Alpheus the same person as 
" James, the brother of our Lord ?" An affirmative answer to this 
question seems to be required by the fact, that Mary the wife of 
Clopas is named as the mother of James and Joses ; and elsewhere, 
James and Joses, and Juda and Simon, are called the brothers of 
Jesus. It should be understood that the word " brother" is used 
in the scriptures often, to imply a relationship much less close than 
that of the children of the same father and mother. " Cousins" 
are called " brothers" in more cases than one, and the Oriental 
mode of maintaining family relationship closely through several 
generations, made it very common to consider those who were the 
children of brothers, as being themselves brothers ; and to those 
familiar with this extension of the term, it would not necessarily 
imply any thing more. In the case alluded to, all those to whom 
the narratives and other statements containing the expression — 
" James, the brother of our Lord," were first addressed, being well 
acquainted with the precise nature of this relationship, would find 
no difficulty whatever in such a use of words. The nature of his 
relationship to Jesus seems to have been that of cousin, whether 
by the father's side or mother's is very doubtful. By John, indeed, 
Mary the wife of Clopas is called the sister of the mother of 
Jesus ; but it will seem reasonable enough to suppose, — since two 
sisters, daughters of the same parents, could hardly bear the same 
name, — that Mary the mother of James, must have been only the 
sister-in-law of the mother of Jesus, either the wife of her brother, 
or the sister of her husband ; or, in perfect conformity with this 
use of the term " sister," she may have been only a cousin or 
some such relation. 

The third question which has been originated from these va- 
rious statements, — whether James, the brother of Jesus and the 
author of the epistle, was an apostle, — must, of course, be an- 



416 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

swered in the affirmative, if the two former points have been cor- 
rectly settled. 

All the opinions on these points are fully given and discussed by Miehaelis, in his 
Introduction to the epistle of James. He states five different suppositions which 
have been advanced respecting the relationship borne to Jesus by those who are in 
the New Testament called his brothers. 1. That they were the sons of Joseph, by 
a former wife. 2. That they were the sons of Joseph, by Mary the mother of Jesus. 
3. That they were the sons of Joseph by the widow of a brother, to whom he was 
obliged to raise up children according to the laws of Moses. 4. That this deceased 
brother of Joseph, to whom the laws required him to raise up issue, was Alpheus. 
5. That they were brothers of Christ, not in the strict sense of the word, but in a 
more lax sense, namely, in that of cousin, or relation in general, agreeably to the 
usage of this word in the Hebrew language. (Gen. xiv. 16; xiii. 8; xxix. 12, 15; 
2 Sam. xix. 12; Num. viii. 26; xvi. 10; Neh. iii. 1.) This opinion, which has been 
here adopted, was first advanced by Jerome, and has been very generally received 
since his time ; though the first of the five was supported by the most ancient of the 
Fathers. Michaelis very clearly refutes all, except the first and the fifth, between 
which he does not decide; mentioning, however, that though he had been early 
taught to respect the latter as the right one, he had since become more favorable to 
the first. 

The earliest statement made concerning these relations of Jesus, 
is by John, who, in giving an account of the visit made by Jesus 
to Jerusalem, at the feast of the tabernacles, mentions, that the 
brethren of Jesus did not believe in him, but, in a rather sneering 
tone, urged him to go up to the feast, and display himself, that the 
disciples who had formerly there followed him, might have an op- 
portunity to confirm their faith by the sight of some new miracle 
done by him. Speaking to him in a very decidedly commanding 
tone, they said — " Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy dis- 
ciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no 
man that does any thing in secret, while he himself seeks to be 
widely known ; if thou do these things, show thyself to the world." 
The whole tenor of this speech shows a spirit certainly very far 
from a just appreciation of the character of their divine brother ; 
and the base, sordid motives, which they impute to him as ruling 
principles of action, were little less than insults to the pure, high 
spirit, which lifted him so far above their comprehension. The 
reply which Jesus made to their taunting address, contained a de- 
cided rebuke of their presumption in thus attacking his motives. 
" My time is not yet come, but yours is always ready. The world 
can not hate you, but me it hates, because I testify of it that its 
works are evil. Go ye up to this feast ; but I am not going yet ; 
for my time is not yet fully come." They might always go where 
mere inclination directed them, nor was there any occasion to refer 
to any higher object. But a mighty scheme was connected with 
his movements, to which he directed every action. In his great 
work, he had already exposed himself to the hatred of the wicked, 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 417 

and his movements were now checked by a regard to the proper 
time for exposing himself to it ; and when that time should come, 
he would unhesitatingly meet the results. 

By a passage in Mark's gospel, it appears also, that at the first 
beginning of the ministry of Jesus, his relations generally were 
so little prepared for a full revelation of the character and destiny 
of him with whom they had long lived familiarly as a brother 
and an intimate, that they viewed with the most disagreeable sur- 
prise and astonishment, his remarkable proceedings, in going from 
place to place with his disciples, — neglecting the business to which 
he had been educated, and deserting his family friends, — preach- 
ing to vast throngs of wondering people, and performing strange 
works of kindness to those who seemed to have no sort of claim 
on his attention. Distressed at these strange actions, they could 
form no conclusion about his conduct, that seemed so reasonable 
and charitable, as that he was beside himself, and needed to be 
confined, to prevent him from doing mischief to himself and others, 
by his seemingly extravagant and distracted conduct. " And they 
came out to lay hold on him, for they said — He is beside himself.' " 
With this very purpose, as it seems, his brothers and family rela- 
tions had come to urge and persuade him back to their home, if 
possible, and stood without, utterly unable to get near him, on ac- 
count of the throngs of hearers and beholders that had beset him. 
They were therefore obliged to send him word, begging him to 
stop his discourse and come out to them, because they wanted to 
see him. The request was therefore passed along from mouth to 
mouth, in the crowd, till at last those who sat next to Jesus com- 
municated the message to him : — " Behold thy mother and thy 
brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee." Jesus fully 
apprehending the nature of the business on which their ill-discern- 
ing regard had brought them thither, only suspended the train of 
his discourse to make such a remark as would impress all with 
the just idea of the value which he set upon earthly affections, 
which were liable to operate as hindrances to him in the great 
work to which he had been devoted ; and to convince them how 
much higher and stronger was the place in his affections held by 
those who had joined themselves to him for life and for death, to 
promote the cause of God, and to do with him the will of his 
Father in heaven, — in the striking language of inquiry, he said — 
" Who is my mother or my brethren ?" Then looking with an 
expression of deep affection around, on those who sat near him, 



418 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

he said — " Behold my mother and my brethren ! For whosoevei 
shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, 
and mother." It appears by this remark, as well as by another 
passage, that he had not only brothers, but sisters, who lived at 
Nazareth at that time, and were well known as his relations. No 
mention however is any where made of his father ; so that it would 
appear that Joseph was now dead. 

This remarkable faithlessness on the part of the brothers of 
Jesus, may be thought to present an insuperable difficulty in the 
way of the supposition that any of them could have been number- 
ed with the apostles. But great as seems to have been their error, 
it hardly exceeded many that were made by his most select fol- 
lowers, even to the time of his ascension. All the apostles may be 
considered to have been in a great measure -unbelie vers, until the 
descent of the Holy Spirit, — for until that time, on no occasion did 
one of them manifest a true faith in the words of Jesus. Times 
almost without number, did he declare to them that he should rise 
from the dead ; but notwithstanding this assertion was so often 
made to them in the most distinct and solemn manner, not one of 
them put the slightest confidence in his words, or believed that he 
would ever appear to them again after his crucifixion. Not even 
the story of his resurrection, repeatedly and solemnly attested by 
the women and others, could overcome their faithlessness ; so that 
when the risen Lord, whose words they had so little heeded, came 
into their presence, moved with a just and holy anger, " he up- 
braided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because 
they believed not those who had seen him after he was risen." So 
that his brothers, at this early period, cannot be considered any 
worse off than the rest of those who knew and loved him best ; 
and if any are disposed to oppose the view that his brethren were 
apostles, by quoting the words of John, that " neither did his 
brethren believe in him," a triumphant retort may be found in the 

fact, that NEITHER DID HIS APOSTLES BELIEVE IN HIM. 

There were, however, other " brothers" of Jesus, besides those 
who were apostles. By Matthew and Mark is also mentioned 
Joses, who is no where mentioned as an apostle ; and there may 
have been others still, whose names are not given ; for, in the 
account given, in the first chapter of Acts, it is recorded that, 
besides all the eleven apostles, there were also assembled in the 
upper room, Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren. It is 
very likely, that Jesus may have had several other cousins, who 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 419 

followed his fortunes, though they were not considered by him, 
qualified to rank among his chosen apostles. But a very promi- 
nent objection to the notion that they were the children of his 
mother, with whom they are mentioned in such close connexion, 
is, that when Jesus was on the cross, he commended her to the 
care of John, his beloved disciple, as though she were destitute of 
any immediate natural protector ; and certainly, if she had at that 
time several sons living, who were full-grown, she could not have 
needed to be intrusted thus to the kindness of one who claimed no 
relationship whatever to her ; but would, of course, have been 
secure of a home, and a comfortable support, so long as her sons 
could have worked for her. These also may have been those 
brethren who did not believe in him, and who considered him be- 
side himself, though there seems no good reason to except any of 
those who are mentioned by Matthew and Mark, as his brethren, — 
James, Juda, Joses, and Simon. 

Beyond these allusions to him, in connexion with others, the 
gospels take no notice whatever of this apostle ; and it is only in 
the Acts of the Apostles, and some of the epistles of Paul, that he 
is mentioned with any great distinctness. In all those passages in 
the apostolic writings, where he is referred to, he is presented as a 
person of high standing and great importance, and his opinions are 
given in such a manner as to convey the impression that they had 
great weight in the regulation of the apostolic doings. This is 
particularly evident in the only passage of the Acts of the Apostles 
where his words are given, which is in the account of the con- 
sultation at Jerusalem about the great question of communion be- 
tween the circumcised and uncircumcised. On this occasion, 
James is mentioned in such a way as to make it evident that he 
was considered the most prominent among those who were zealous 
for the preservation of the Mosaic forms, and to have been by all 
such, regarded in the light of a leader, since his decision seems to 
have been esteemed by them as a sort of law ; and the perfect ac- 
quiescence of even the most troublesome, in the course which he 
recommended, is a proof of his predominant influence. The tone 
and style of the address itself also imply that the speaker thought 
he had good reason to believe that others were looking to him in 
particular, for the decision which should regulate their opinions 
on this doubtful question. After Simon Peter, as the great chief 
of the apostles, had first expressed his opinion on the question 
under discussion, and had referred to his own inspired divine 

DO 



420 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

revelations of the will of God in respect to the Gentiles, Paul and 
Barnabas next gave a full account of their operations, and of the 
signs and wonders with which God had followed their labors. 

After the full exposition made by Paul and Barnabas, of all 
their conduct, James arose to make his reply in behalf of the close 
adherents of Mosaic forms, and said, — " Men and brethren ! listen 
to me. Simeon has set forth in what manner God did first con- 
descend to take from the heathen a people for his name. And 
with this, all the words of the prophets harmonize, as it is written, 
— ' After these things I will turn back, and will rebuild the fallen 
tabernacle of David ; I will both rebuild its ruins and erect it 
again, in order that the rest of mankind may seek out the 
Lord, together with all the heathen who are called by my 
name, saith the Lord who made all things.' ' Well known to God 
are all his works from eternity.' So I think that we ought not 
to make trouble for those who have turned from the heathen to 
God ; but that we should direct them to refrain from things that 
have been offered unto idols, and from fornication, and from what 
has been strangled, and from blood. For Moses has, from ancient 
generations, in these cities, those who make him known, — his law 
being read every sabbath day." This opinion, formed and deliver- 
ed in a truly Christian spirit of compromise, seems to have had the 
effect of a permanent decision ; and the great leader of the rigid 
Judaizers, having thus renounced all opposition to the adoption of 
the converted heathen into full and open Christian communion, 
though without the seals of the Mosaic covenant, — all those who 
had originated this vexatious question ceased their attempts to 
distract the harmony of the apostles ; and the united opinions of 
the great apostolic chief, who had first opened the gates of Christ's 
kingdom to the heathen, and of the eminent defender of Mosaic 
forms, so silenced all discussion, that thenceforth these opinions, 
thus fully expressed, became the common law of the Christian 
churches, throughout the world, in all ages. 

This address of James (Acts xv. 13 — 21) may justly be pronounced the most ob- 
scure passage of all that can be found in the New Testament, of equal length,— 
almost every verse in it containing some point, which has been made the subject of 
dispute. Schottgen (quoted by Bloomfield) thus analyzes this discourse : — " It con- 
sists of three parts ; — the Exordium, (ver. 13,) in which the speaker uses a form of 
expression calculated to secure the good-will of his auditors ; — the Statement, (verses 
16—18,) containing also a confirmation of it from the prophets, and the reason; — the 
Proposition, (verses 19, 20,) that the Gentiles are not to be compelled to Judaism, but 
are only to abstain from certain things particularly offensive to the spirit of the Mo- 
saic institutions." 

Simeon, (ver. 14.) This peculiar form of Peter's first name, has led some to sup- 
pose that he could not be the person meant 3 since he is mentioned in all other narra- 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 421 

tives by the name of Simon. "Wolf imagines that Simon Zelotes must have been 
the person thus distinguished, though all the difficulties are the same in his case as 
in Peter's. But Simeon (Svpewv) and Simon are the same name, the latter being only 
an abridged form, better suited to the inflexions of the Greek than the former. Peter 
himself, in the beginning of his second epistle, announces his own name in this form, 
though in the first, he gives it in the usual way, — thus showing that both forms were 
used indifferently. This preference of the full Hebrew form may have been meant 
to be characteristic of James, who seems to have been in general very zealous for the 
minute observance of ancient Jewish usages in all things. 

Has condescended to take. Common trans. " did visit them to take," &c. This much 
clearer translation is justified by the meaning which Bretschneider has given to 
sir«TKiirroiiai, (episkeptomai,) benigne voluit, &c, for which he quotes the Greek of the 
Alexandrine version of the Old Testament. 

Harmonize, (verse 15.) The original (cv/jupuvovatv, sumphonousin) refers in the 
same manner as this word does to the primary idea of accordance in sound, (sym- 
phony,) and thence by a metonymy is applied to agreement in general. This pas- 
sage of prophecy is quoted by James from Amos ix. 11, 12, and accords, in the con- 
struction which he puts upon it, much better with the Alexandrine Greek version, 
than with the original Hebrew or the common translations. The prophet (as Kuinoel 
observes) is describing the felicity of the golden age, and declares that the Jews will 
subdue their enemies and all nations, and that all will worship Jehovah. Now this, 
James accommodates to the present purpose, and applies to the propagation of the gos- 
pel among the Gentiles, and their reception into the Christian community. (See Ro- 
senmuller, Acts xv. 15, for a very full exegesis of this passage.) 

Well known to God are all his works. These words have been made the subject of 
a great deal of inquiry among commentators, who have found some difficulties in 
ascertaining their connexion with the preceding part of the discourse. Various new 
and unauthorized renderings of the words have been proposed, but have been gene- 
rally rejected. It seems to me that the force of the passage is considerably illustrated 
by throwing the whole emphasis of the sentence upon the word " all" — " Known 
unto God are all his works from the beginning of ages." James is arguing on the 
equal and impartial grace of God, as extended not only to the Jews, but also to the 
Gentiles ; — not to one nation merely, but to all his creatures. " Thus saith the Lord 
who makes (or does) all things." The original Hebrew of the prophecy, indeed, 
does not contain this, but that is itself a circumstance which shows that James had a 
particular object in this accommodation of the words to this form and purpose. 

So I think, d^c. (verse 19.) Hammond and others have attempted to find in the 
original of this ver-b (Kpiva, krind) a peculiar force, implying that James announced 
his decision with a kind of judicial emphasis, in the character of " Bishop of Jeru- 
salem." The groundlessness of this translation is shown by Bloomfield's numerous 
references to classical authority for the simple meaning of " think." The difficulties 
in the twentieth verse are so numerous and weighty, and have been made the subject 
of such protracted and minute discussions by all the great commentators, that it would 
be vain to attempt any account of them here. 

The great eminence of James among the apostles is very fully- 
shown in several incidental allusions made to him in other pas- 
sages of the apostolic writings. Thus when Peter, after his mi- 
raculous release from prison, came to the house of Mary the mother 
of John Mark, he, at departing from the Christians there assem- 
bled, told them to tell James and the brethren ; implying, of course, 
that James was altogether the most prominent person among them, 
and might justly be. considered chief apostle in the absence of 
Peter ; and that to him any message intended for all, might be ap- 
propriately first addressed. In the same way did the angel, at the 
resurrection of Jesus, distinguish Peter among all the apostles, 



422 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

mentioning him alone by name, as the individual person to whom 
the divine message was to be delivered. 

But no where is his eminence among the apostles so strongly- 
marked, as in Paul's account of his own visits to Jerusalem, "and 
the incidents connected with them. He there mentions " James, 
the brother of our Lord," in such terms as to show that he must 
have been one of the apostles ; thus adding a valuable confirma- 
tion to the testimony above adduced in favor of this very point, 
that James, the brother of Jesus, was an apostle. Paul's words 
are — " Other of the apostles (besides Peter) saw I none, except 
James, the Lord's brother ;" an expression which all analogy re- 
quires to be construed into a clear assertion that this James was 
an apostle. In speaking of the second visit, fourteen years after, 
Paul also bears a noble testimony to the eminence of James, and, 
what is remarkable, gives him the very first place among those 
three whom he mentions by name. He says — " When James, Ce- 
phas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that 
was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of 
fellowship." This very peculiar arrangement of these three great 
names has seemed so strange to the more stubborn Papists, that 
they can not believe that the Cephas here mentioned in the second 
place, is their great idol, Peter ; and many of them have main- 
tained, in long arguments, that he was not Peter, — a notion which 
might seem plausible at first glance, from the circumstance, that 
throughout his whole narrative, Paul has been speaking of Peter 
by the common Greek form of his surname, while in this particu- 
lar passage, he uses the original Hebrew word, Cephas. But this 
verbal change is of no consequence whatever, except as showing 
that in this connexion there was something which suggested a 
preference of the Hebrew name, while mentioning him along with 
the two other great apostolic chiefs, James and John. And even 
this very peculiar promotion of James to the first place, is easily 
explained by a consideration of the subject in connexion with 
which these personages are mentioned. James was unquestion- 
ably the great leader of the sticklers for Mosaic forms ; and he is 
therefore the most important person to be quoted in reference to 
Paul's reception, while the dissensions about circumcision were 
raging. Peter, on the other hand, being himself the great cham- 
pion of open Gentile communion, from his having been himself 
the first of all men to bring them under the gospel, was, of course, 
understood to be a favorer of Paul's views of the noble catholic 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 423 

extension of Christianity ; and his name was therefore of really- 
less importance in Paul's statement, than the name of James, who 
was every where known as the head of the circumcision party, and 
being mentioned as having shown such respect to Paul, would 
make it evident that the two Hellenist apostles were taken into 
favor by all parties, and heartily commended to the great work of 
evangelizing the heathen. 

The especially watchful zeal of James, for the preservation of 
Mosaic forms, is very distinctly implied in another passage of the 
same epistle. He had, in a nobly considerate spirit of compromise, 
agreed that it was best to receive all Gentile converts as Christian 
brethren, though they conformed only very partially to the Mosaic 
institutions. It was perfectly a matter of common sense, to every 
reasonable man, that the progress of the gospel would be greatly 
hindered, and almost brought to a stand, among the heathen, if a 
minute adherence to all the corporeal observances of the Levitical 
code, were required for Christian communion ; and James, though 
profoundly reverencing all the requirements of his national reli- 
gion, was too wise to think of imposing all these rituals upon 
those whose whole habits would be at war with the observance of 
them, though in heart and in life they might be fully fitted to ap- 
preciate and enjoy the blessings of Christ's spiritual covenant. He 
therefore distinctly expressed his accordance with Peter, in these 
general principles of Christian policy, yet, as subsequent events 
show, he was by no means disposed to go to all lengths with the 
more zealous chief of the apostles, in his readiness to renounce, in 
his own person, all the peculiarities of Jewish habits ; and seems 
to have still maintained the opinion, that the original, pure Hebrew 
apostles, should live in the most scrupulous observance of their 
religious exclusiveness, towards those whom the Levitical law 
would pronounce unclean, and too much polluted with various 
defilements, to be the familiar associates of a truly religious Jew. 
This sentiment of James appears to have been well known to 
Peter, who, conscious of the peculiar rigidity of his great apostolic 
associate, on these points, wisely sought to avoid all occasions of 
needlessly exciting complaints and dissensions among the chief 
ministers of the word of truth. For this reason, as has already 
been narrated in his life, when he was at Antioch, though during 
the first part of his residence there, he had, without the slightest 
scruple, gone familiarly and frequently into the company of the 
unbelieving Gentiles, eating and drinking with them, without re- 



424 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

gard to any liability to corporeal pollutions, that were against the 
rules of Levitical purity, — yet when some persons came down 
from Jerusalem, from James, he entirely withdrew himself, all at 
once, within the strict bounds of Mosaic observances. Perhaps 
these visitors from James had been specially instructed by him 
to note the demeanor of Peter, and to see whether, in his zeal 
for removing all obstruction out of the way of the Gentile con- 
verts, he might not forget what was due to his own character as a 
descendent of Abraham, and a disciple of him who so faithfully 
fulfilled all the righteousness of the law. However this might be, 
Peter's actions plainly expressed some dread of offending James, 
and those who came from him ; else he certainly would not have 
refrained, in this remarkable manner, from a course of conduct, 
which he had before followed unhesitatingly, as though he had 
not the slightest doubt of its perfect moral propriety ; and the con- 
clusion is reasonable, that he now changed his demeanor, only 
from views of expediency, and a regard to the jealous sensitive- 
ness of his great associate, on points of Levitical law. 

HIS APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 

From these and other passages, implying a great eminence of 
James. in the direction of the plans of evangelization, it is evident, 
that, in the absence of Peter, he must have been the most import- 
ant person among the apostles at Jerusalem ; and after the perma- 
nent removal of the commissioned apostolic chief, to other and 
wider fields of action, his rank, as principal person among all the 
ministers of Christ in Jerusalem, must have been very decidedly 
established. From this circumstance has originated the notion 
that he was " bishop of Jerusalem ;" and this is the title with which 
the later Fathers have attempted to decorate him, — as if any honor 
whatever could be conferred on an apostle, by giving him the title 
of a set of inferior ministers appointed by the original commis- 
sioned preachers of Christ, to be merely their substitutes in the in- 
struction and management of those numerous churches which 
could not be blessed by the presence of an apostle, and to be their 
successors in the supreme earthly administration of the affairs of 
the Christian community, when the great founders had all been 
removed from their labors, to their rest. How nearly the duties 
performed by James corresponded to the modern episcopal func- 
tion, it is utterly impossible to say, for the simple reason that not 
the slightest record of his actions is left, to which references can 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 425 

be made, on this interesting question. That he was the most emi- 
nent of the apostles resident at Jerusalem is quite clear ; and that 
by him, under these circumstances, were performed the great pro- 
portion of the pastoral duties among the believers in that city, may 
be most justly supposed ; and his influence over Christian con- 
verts would by no means be limited by the walls of the Holy city. 
In his apostolic functions, he, of course, became known to all re- 
sorting to that place ; and his faithful and eminent ministry in the 
capital of the Jewish religion would extend not only his fame, but 
the circle of his personal acquaintances, throughout all parts of 
the world, from which pilgrims came to the great annual festivals 
in Jerusalem. His immense apostolic diocese, therefore, could not 
be very easily bounded, nor was it defined with any exactness, to 
prevent it from running into the limits of those divisions of the 
fields of duty, in which Peter, Paul, John, and others, had been 
more especially laboring. His influence among the Jews in gene- 
ral, (whether believers in Christ or not,) would from various ac- 
counts, appear to have been greater than that of any other apostle ; 
and this, combined with the circumstances of his location, would 
seem to entitle him very fairly to the rauk and character of the 
apostle of the " dispersion." This was a term transferred from 
the abstract to the concrete sense, and was applied in a collective 
meaning to the great body of Jews in all parts of the world, 
through which they were scattered by chance, choice, or ne- 
cessity. 

Bishov of Jerusalem. — The first application of this title to James, that appears on 
record, is in Eusebius, who quotes the still older authority of Clemens Alexandrinus. 
(Hist. Ecc, II. 1.) The words of Eusebius are, " Then James, who was called the 
brother of our Lord, because he was the son of Joseph, and whom, on account of his 
eminent virtue, those of ancient times surnamed the Just, is said to have first held 
the chair of the bishopric of Jerusalem. Clemens, in the sixth book of his Institutes, 
distinctly confirms this. For he says that ' after the Savior's ascension, although the 
Lord had given to Petef, James, and John, a rank before all the rest, yet they did not 
therefore contend among themselves for the first distinction, but chose James the Just, 
to be bishop of Jerusalem.' And the same writer, in the seventh book of the same 
work, says these things of him, besides : ' To James the Just, and John, and Peter, 
did the Lord, after the resurrection, grant the knowledge, (the gnosis, or knowledge 
of mysteries,) and these imparted it to the other disciples.' " 

In judging of the combined testimony of these two ancient writers, it should be ob- 
served, that it is not by any means so ancient and direct as that of Polycrates, on the 
identity of Philip the apostle, and Philip the deacon, which these very Fathers quote 
with assent. Nor can their opinion be worth any more in this case than in the other. 
On no point, where a knowledge of the New Testament, and a sound judgment, are 
the only guides, can the testimony of the Fathers be considered of any value what- 
ever; for the most learned of them betray a wonderful ignorance of the Bible in 
their writings ; nor can the most acute of them compare, for sense and judgment, 
with the most ordinary of modern commentators. The whole course of Patristic 
theology affords abundant instances of the very low powers of these writers, for the 
discrimination of truth and falsehood. The science of historical criticism had no 



426 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

existence among them — nor indeed is there any reason why they should be consider- 
ed persons of any historical authority, except so far as they can refer directly to the 
original sources, and to the persons immediately concerned in the events which they 
record. On all matters of less unexceptionable authority, where their testimony does 
not happen to contradict known truth or common sense, all that can be said in their 
favor is, that the thing thus reported is not improbable ; but all supplements to the ac- 
counts given in the New Testament, unless they refer directly to eye-witnesses, may 
be pronounced very suspicious and wholly uncertain. In this case, Eusebius's opinion 
that James, the brother of our Lord, was the son of Joseph, is worth no more than 
that of the latest commentator ; because he had no more historical aids than the wri- 
ters of these days. Nor is the story of Clemens, that James was bishop of Jerusalem, 
worth any more ; because he does not refer to any historical evidence. 

HIS EPISTLE. 

Noticing some peculiar circumstances in the condition of his 
countrymen, throughout this wide dispersion, the apostle addressed 
to them a written exhortation, suited to their spiritual necessities. 
In the opening, he announces himself simply by the title of " James, 
the servant of Jesus Christ," not choosing to ground any claim for 
their respect or obedience on the accidents of birth or relationship, 
but on the mere character of one devoted to the cause of Christ for 
life and for death, — and entitled, by the peculiar commission of his 
Lord, to teach and direct his followers in his name. In consequence 
of this omission of the circumstance of relationship, a query has been 
even raised whether the author of this epistle could really be the 
same person as the brother of Jesus. But a trifle of this kind can 
never be allowed to have any weight in the decision of such a ques- 
tion. He directs himself, in general terms, to all the objects of his 
extended apostolic charge ; — " to the twelve tribes that are in the 
Dispersion." 

A brief review of the contents of the epistle will furnish the best 
means of ascertaining its scope and immediate object, and will also 
afford just ground for tracing the connexion between the design ot 
the apostle and the remarkable events in the history of those times, 
which are recorded by the other writers of that age. He first urges 
them to persevere in faith, without wavering or sinking under all the 
peculiar difficulties then pressing on them ; and refers them to God 
as the source of that wisdom which they need for their direction. 
From him alone all good proceeds ; but no sin, nor temptations to 
sin. The cause of that, lies in man himself: let him not then blas- 
phemously ascribe his evil dispositions, nor the occasions of their 
development, to God ; but seeking wisdom and strength from above, 
let him resist the tempter : — blessed is the man that thus endures 
and withstands the trial. He next points out to them the utter 
worthlessness of all the distinctions of rank and wealth among those 
professing the faith of Jesus. Such base respect of persons on the 
score of accidental worldly advantages, is denounced, as being foreign 
to the spirit of Christianity. True religion requires something more 
than a profession of faith ; its substance and its signs are the ener- 
getic and constant practice of virtuous actions, and it allows no dis- 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 427 

pensations or excuses to any one. He next dwells especially on the 
high responsibilities of those who assume the office of teaching. 
The tongue requires a most watchful restraint, lest passion or haste 
pervert the advantages of eminence and influence, into the base in- 
struments of human wrath. The true manifestations of religious 
knowledge and zeal, must be in a spirit of gentleness, forbearance, 
and love, — not in the expressions of hatred, nor in cursing. But of 
this pure, heavenly spirit, their late conduct had shown them to be 
lamentably destitute. Strifes, tumults, and bitter denunciations, had 
betrayed their un-Christian character. They needed, therefore, to 
seek humbly this meek spirit from God, and not proudly to assume 
the prerogatives of judgment and condemnation, which belonged to 
Him alone. His condemnation was indeed about to fall on their 
country. With most peculiar ruin would it light on those now 
reveling in their ill-gotten riches, and rejoicing in the vain hope of a 
perpetual prosperity. But let the faithful persevere, cheered by the 
memory of the bright examples of the suffering pious of other days, 
and by the hope of the coming of their Lord, whose appearance in 
glory and judgment would soon crown their fervent prayers. Mean- 
while, supported by this assurance, let them continue in a virtuous 
course, watching even their words, visiting the sick in charity and 
mercy, and all exhorting and instructing each other in the right way. 
The peculiar difficulties of the times here referred to, are — a state 
of bloody intestine commotion, disturbing the peace of society, and 
desolating the land with hatred, contention, and murder ; — a great 
inequality of condition, in respect to property, — some amassing vast 
wealth by extortion, and abusing the powers and privileges thereby 
afforded, to the purposes of tyranny, — condemning and killing the 
just ; — a perversion of laws for the gratification of private spite ; — 
and every where a great occasion for good men to exercise patience 
and faith, relying upon God alone for the relief of the community 
from its desperate calamities. But a prospect was already presented 
of a consummation of these distracting troubles, in the utter ruin of 
the wicked ; a change in the condition of things was about to occur, 
which would bring poverty and distress upon the haughty oppres- 
sors, who had heaped treasure together only for the last days. The 
brethren, therefore, had but a little time to wait for the coming of the 
Lord. Both of these two latter expressions point very clearly at the 
destruction of Jerusalem, — for this is the reference which these terms 
had, in those days, among the Christians. Jesus had promised his 
chosen disciples, that their generation should not pass away, till all 
those awful calamities which he denounced on the Jewish state, 
should be fulfilled; and for this event all his suffering followers were 
now looking, as the seal of the truth of Christ's word. Searching in 
the history of the times, a few years previous to that final desolation, 
it is found in the testimony of impartial writers, that these were the 
too faithful details of the evils which then raged in Palestine. " For, 
56 



428 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

under Felix, and again under Portius Festus, desperate patriots 
marched through the country, in whole bodies, and forcibly tore 
away with them the inhabitants of open places, and if they would 
not follow them, set fire to the villages, and enacted bloody scenes. 
They even made their appearance in the capital and at the feasts, 
where they mixed among the crowd of people, and committed many 
secret assassinations with concealed weapons. As to that which 
regards the external circumstances and the civil condition of the 
Jews and Jewish Christians, they were far from being agreeable. 
The praetors, under all maimer of pretexts, made extortions, and 
abused their legal authority for the sake of enriching themselves ; a 
person was obliged to purchase with money his liberation from their 
prisons, as well as his safety and his rights ; he might even purchase 
a license to commit crimes. In this state, under these circumstances, 
and in this degree of civil disorder, the author might probably have 
regarded his countrymen ; for, although he wrote to the whole world, 
yet his native land passed more immediately before his eyes." 

For the sources, and for the minuter proofs and illustrations of these views, see 
Hug's Introduction, as translated by Wait, vol. II. §§ 148, 159— §§ 163, 168, of the 
original. 

In the immediate consideration of all these present iniquities and 
coming desolations, he wrote to prepare the believing Jews, in Pales- 
tine more particularly, but also throughout the world, for the over- 
whelming consummation of their nation's destiny. Terrible as 
would be this doom to the wicked, and mournful as would be these 
national desolations to all, the righteous should find consolations in 
the peaceful establishment of the spiritual kingdom of their Lord, 
over the ruins of the dominion of his murderers, — of those who had 
" condemned and killed the just One, though he did not resist them." 
But in all these awful signs, should the faithful see the forewarned 
coming of the Son of Man ; and as he himself told his chosen 
apostles, " then should they lift up their heads ; for their redemption 
drew nigh." 

Besides these external troubles, there were others of a different 
character, arising and existing solely among those who professed the 
religion of Christ. The instructions given by Paul, in reference to 
the absolute necessity of faith, and the insufficiency of a mere formal 
routine of religious duties, had been most grossly perverted into a 
warrant for the all-sufficiency of a mere belief ] as the means of sal- 
vation ; — an error by no means limited in its mischievous existence, 
to the days of the apostles, but so comfortable to the minds of mere 
religious formalists, in all ages of Christianity, that a new revelation, 
like that here made by James, though directly repeated through every 
century of the Christian era, would be equally vain, for the preven- 
tion or the remedy of this never-dying heresy. All the words of 
James on the subject of faith and works, are evidently aimed at the 
refutation of those who had taken advantage of the opinions which 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 429 

Paul had expressed, on the same subjects ; but which were expressed 
with a totally different reference, being stated not generally nor ab- 
stractly, but in application to some particular dogmatic errors. 
James, after distinctly condemning those whom Peter calls the " un- 
learned and unstable, who thus wrested to their own destruction the 
things hard to be understood in the writings of Paul," next attacks 
certain persons who, without being authorized or qualified, had as- 
sumed the station and responsibility of religious teachers. Many 
persons taking up the office of instructors in this manner, had caused 
great confusion, by using their hasty tongues, in mere polemic and 
denunciatory discourse, condemning and cursing, in unmeasured 
terms, those who differed from them in opinion. These he rebukes, 
as thus "giving occasion for offense and error to all ;" and sets forth 
the character of that true wisdom which comes from above, and which 
is peaceable, " sowing the fruit of righteousness in peace." 

Many teachers. — In order to understand this reference, it should be noticed, that 
the word masters, in the common translation of chap. iii. verse 1, of this epistle, is 
not to be taken in the common modern sense, but in that of " religious teachers." 
The original is not Kvpiot, (Kurioi,) '^Lords," " Masters," — but JitidaKaXoi, (didaskaloi,) 
" Teachers." The translators probably intended it only in the latter sense ; for the 
word " Master" really has that meaning in such connexions, in good authors of that 
age; and even at this day, in England, the same usage of the word is very common, 
though almost unknown in this country, except in compound technical terms. 

HIS DEATH. 

The epistle was probably the last great act of his life. No re- 
cord, indeed, of any of his labors, except this living instance, exists 
of his later years ; but there is certain ground for supposing that 
his residence in Jerusalem was characterized by a steady course of 
apostolic labors, in the original sphere of action, to which the 
twelve had first confined themselves for many years. When, by 
the special calls of God, in providences and in revelations, one and 
another of the apostles had been summoned to new and distant 
fields, east, west, north, and south, " preaching repentance and re- 
mission of sins, in his name, among all nations, beginning at Je- 
rusalem," and bearing witness of his works, thence, through Judea, 
and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth," there was 
still needed one, who, highly " indued with power from on high," 
might remain in that city to which all the sons of Israel, through- 
out the world, looked as the fountain of religious light. There too 
was the scene of the first great triumphs of the Christian faith, as 
well as of the chief toils, the trials, and the death of the great 
founder himself. All these circumstances rendered Jerusalem still 
an important post to the apostles ; and they therefore left on that 
station the apostle, whose steady courage in the cause of Christ, 



430 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

and blameless yet jealous conformity to the law of Moses, fitted 
him at once for the bold maintenance of his Master's commission, 
and for the successful advancement of the gospel among the faith- 
ful believers of the ancient covenant. Thus James continued at 
Jerusalem throughout his life, being kept at this important station, 
perhaps on account of his age, as well as for his fitness in other 
respects ; as there is some reason to think that he was older than 
those more active apostles who assumed the foreign departments 
of the work. His great weight of character, as evinced in the 
council of the apostles, and by the fear which Peter showed of of- 
fending him, very naturally gives the idea of a greater age than 
that of the other apostles ; and this notion is furthermore confirmed 
by the circumstance that the brethren of Jesus, among whom this 
apostle was certainly included, are mentioned as assuming an au- 
thority over their divine relation, and claiming a right to control 
and direct his motions, which could never have been assumed, ac- 
cording to the established order of Jewish families, unless they had 
been older than he. It is therefore a rational supposition, that 
James was one of the oldest, perhaps the oldest, of the apostles ; 
and at any rate he appears to have been more advanced in life 
than any of those who are characterized with sufficient distinctness 
to offer the means of conjecture on this point. 

The last mention made of James in New Testament history, is 
in the account given in the Acts of the Apostles, of Paul's last 
visit to Jerusalem, where it is mentioned, that on the day after his 
arrival, he, with his companions, visited James, and to him and 
the elders made a report of his acts and adventures among the 
Gentiles. No other apostle is named in this account, nor, indeed, 
does it appear that any other was then in Jerusalem, James and 
the elders being the supreme Christian council ; and the mention 
of his name alone implies that he was the most eminent person 
among the Christians, and their undoubted head. 

This account is in Acts xxi. 18. The advice given by James and the elders to 
Paul, about conforming to the observances of the Mosaic law, is also highly charac- 
teristic of this apostle. 

From the high charge of this great central apostolic station, in 
which he had, through a course of more than twenty-five years, 
accumulated the ripe honors of a " righteous" name upon his 
hoary head, James was now called to end a career, which so much 
resembled that of the ancient prophets, by a death equally assimi- 
lated to the bloody fate to which so many of them had been doomed 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 431 

by the subjects of their reproofs. His high standing among the 
Christians, and the peculiar favor and reverence with which he was 
regarded even by the Jews, on account of his steady and consist- 
ent devotion to all the observances of the Mosaic law, conspired to 
make him an object to the dignitaries of Judaism, whose hatred for 
Christianity and its preachers had by no means abated by observing 
its triumphant extension. James, whose rigid moral and religious 
exactness had procured him among the people the name of " the 
just," was now left alone in the apostleship at Jerusalem, and on 
him therefore was concentrated all the hatred which the Jewish 
chiefs bore to the faith and the followers of Jesus. But the reli- 
gious tolerance enjoyed under the Roman sway, long prevented 
the gratification of the spirit of persecution ; yet the spite of the 
opposers of Jesus was nourished and transmitted through many 
years, until some peculiar opportunity should present itself to an 
active persecuting mind, and afford the occasion and means of 
revenge. 

In the year 60 of the Christian era, Festus, governor of Judea, 
having died, there occurred a brief interval, between his death 
and the arrival of Albinus his successor, during which the Jewish 
council of state were the highest power left in Jerusalem. Ananus, 
a young, fiery Sadducee, having just been appointed high priest, 
had the boldness to assume the sovran power of life and death ; 
and bringing him, with others of the hated followers of the new 
faith, before the Sanhedrim, he effected their condemnation, and, 
as one account represents, getting up a tumult among the lower 
orders, dragged them to the outer courts of the temple, where all 
were murdered. If the most ancient Christian story may be be- 
lieved, James was first thrown from the roof of the temple-court 
to the ground, (after an ineffectual attempt to induce him to re- 
nounce the faith of Jesus,) and as the venerable old man was not 
instantly killed by the fall, a bloody, hard-hearted ruffian in the 
mob smote him with a huge club, and crowned the earthly toils 
of " the brother of our Lord" with the glories of martyrdom. 

The eminent Jewish historian, Josephus, himself a resident in Jerusalem at that 
time, and an eyewitness of these events, and, undoubtedly, acquainted by sight and 
fame with James, has given a clear account of the execution of this apostle, which 
can best evince its own merit by being given entire. 

" The account which Josephus has given, shows that the death of James must have 
happened during Paul's imprisonment, and is delivered in the following words : — { The 
emperor, being informed of the death of Festus, sent Albinus to be prefect of Judea. 
But the younger Ananus, who, as we have said before, was made high priest, was 
haughty in his behavior, and very ambitious. He was also of the sect of the Sadducees, 
who, as we have also observed before, are above all other Jews severe in their judicial 



432 



LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



sentences. This, then, being the temper of Ananus, he, thinking he had a convenient 
opportunity, because Festus was dead, and Albinus was not yet arrived, called a coun- 
cil, and brought before it James, brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, with several 
others, where they were accused of being trangressors of the law, and stoned to death. 
But the most moderate men of the city, who were also the most learned in the laws, 
were offended at this proceeding. They sent therefore privately to the king," [Agrip- 
pa, sovran of northern Palestine, and then possessing great power and influence in 
Jerusalem, though that city was not in his own proper dominions,] " and entreated 
him to give orders to Ananus to abstain from such conduct in future. And some 
went to meet Albinus, who was coming from Alexandria, and represented to him, 
that Ananus had no right to call a council without his permission. Albinus approving 
of what they said, wrote a very severe letter to Ananus, threatening to punish him 
for what he had done. And king Agrippa took away from him the priesthood, 
after he had possessed it three months, and appointed in his stead Jesus, the son of 
Damnaeus.' From this account of Josephus, we learn, that James, notwithstanding 
he was a Christian, was so far from being an object of hatred to the Jews, that he 
was rather beloved and respected. At least his death exeited very different sensa- 
tions from that of the first James; and the Sadducean high priest, at whose instiga- 
tion he suffered, was punished for his offense by the loss of his office." 

This translation is taken from Marsh's Michaelis, (Introd. Vol. IV. pp. 287, 288.) 
The original is in the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus. (XX. ix. 1.) 

This, however, is not the statement which the early Christian writers give of the 
death of James the Just; but from the oldest historian of the church, is derived ano- 
ther narrative, so highly decorated with minute particulars, that while it is made very 
much more interesting than the concise and simple account given by Josephus, it is 
at the same time rendered rather suspicious by the very circumstance of its interest- 
ing minuteness. Josephus had no temptation whatever to pervert the statement. He 
gives it in terms strongly condemnatory of the whole transaction; but the Chris- 
tian writers, as they have shown in such other instances, are too often disposed to 
amplify truth, for the sake of making up a story whose incidents harmonize best with 
their notions of a desirable martyrdom. The story, however, deserves a place here, 
both for the sake of a fair comparison, and on account of its own interesting char- 
acter. 

" James, the brother of the Lord, managed the church, with the apostles; who was 
by all named ' the Just,' ('0 Sikcuos,) from the time of the Lord [Jesus] even to our 
own times. For many were called James, but this man was holy from his mother's 
womb. He drank neither wine, nor strong drink; nor ate any creature wherein was 
life. There never came a razor upon his beard ; — he anointed not himself with oil, 
neither did he use a bath. To him only it was lawful to enter into the holy of holies. 
He wore no woolen, but only linen garments; and entered the temple alone, where 
he was seen upon his knees, supplicating for the forgiveness of the people, till his 
knees became hard, and covered with a callus, like those of a camel. On account 
of his eminent righteousness, he was called the Just, and Oblias, which signifies 
1 the people's fortress.' Then, after describing the divisions among the people, re- 
specting Christianity, the account states, that all the leading men among the Scribes 
and Pharisees, came to James, and entreated him to stand up on the battlements of 
the temple, and persuade the people assembled at the passover, to hav« juster notions 
concerning Jesus; and that, when thus mounted on the battlements, he cried with a 
loud voice — ' Why do ye question me about Jesus, the Son of Man 1 He even sits in 
heaven, at the right hand of great power, and will come in the clouds of heaven.' 
With this declaration, many were satisfied, and cried — ' Hosanna to the Son of David.' 
But the unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees, mortified at what they had done, pro- 
duced a riot; for they consulted together, and then cried out — ' Oh ! oh ! even the Just 
one is himself deceived.' They went up, therefore, and cast down the Just, and said? 
among themselves—' Let us stone James the Just.' And they began to stone him. for 
he did not die with his fall ; but turning, he kneeled, saying—' I entreat, O Lord God 
the Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' And while they were 
stoning him, one of the priests, of the sons of Rahab, spoken of by Jeremiah the 
prophet, cried out — ' Cease ; what do ye "? The Just one prays for us.' But a certain 
one among them, a fuller, took a lever, such as he had used to squeeze garments, 
and smote the Just one on the head. Thus he bore his testimony; and they buried 
him in that place, and his grave-stone yet remains near the temple." 

This story is from Hegesippus, as quoted by Eusebius, to whom alone we owe its 
preservation, — the works of the original author being all lost, except such fragments, 



JAMES THE LITTLE. 433 

accidentally quoted by other writers. The translation is mostly taken from the MS. 
of the Rev. Dr. Murdock, to whose research I am already so much indebted in simi- 
lar instances. (The passage is in Eusebius, Hist. Ecc. II. 23.) 

The comments of Michaelis on these two testimonies, may be appropriately sub- 
joined. (Introd. Vol. IV. pp. 288, 291. Marsh's Translation.) " The account given 
by Hegesippus, contains an intermixture of truth and fable ; and in some material 
points contradicts the relation of Josephus, to which no objection can be made. It 
confirms, however, the assertion, that James was in great repute among the Jews, 
even among those who did not believe in Christ ; and that they paid him much greater 
deference than we might suppose they would have shown to a Christian bishop, and 
a brother of Christ, whom they had crucified. Many parts of the preceding account 
are undoubtedly fabulous, especially that part which relates to the request of the Jews, 
that James would openly declare from the battlements of the temple, that Jesus was 
not the Messiah. Indeed, if this were true, it would not redound to his honor ; for 
it would imply that he had acted with duplicity, and not taken a decided part in favor 
of Christianity, or the Jews could never have thought of making such a request. 
But that a person, who was at the head of the church in Jerusalem, should have 
acted such a double part as to leave it undecided what party he had embraced, and 
that, too, for thirty years after the ascension, is in itself almost incredible. It is in- 
consistent likewise with the relation of Josephus, and is virtually contradicted both 
by Paul and by Luke, who always speak of him with the utmost respect, and have 
no where given the smallest hint, that he concealed the principal doctrines of the 
Christian religion." — Neander also condemns it. (Apost. II. 1.) 

Lardner, however, in his excessive reverence for the Fathers, in order to set the 
story of Hegesippus beyond suspicion, has endeavored to overthrow the opposing 
narrative of Josephus, by representing that as an inconsistent forgery, interpolated 
by some Christian copyist. Lardner has succeeded in effecting the condemnation of 
at least two suspicious passages in the modern text of Josephus, — that describing 
Jesus Christ, and that concerning the death of John the Baptist, — the former of which 
is now universally condemned as an interpolation, and the latter very generally sus- 
pected as such. But in regard to the clear and distinct narrative of James's death, he 
has been far from successful, and this statement is generally preferred to that of 
Hegesippus. (See Lardner's Jewish Testimonies. Josephus.) 

The date which I have adopted for this transaction (A. D. 60) is on the high criti- 
cal authority of Antony Pagi. (Crit. Baronii. A. C. 60, ad fin. p. 46.) Baronius 
fixes it in A. D. 61, (63 of his enumeration.) Valesius in A. D. 46. Cave says 
A. D. 61. 

Thus gloriously ended the steady, bright career of " the second 
apostolic martyr." Honored, even by the despisers of the faith 
and haters of the name of Christ, with the exalted title of " the 
Just," he added the solemn witness of his blood, to that of his 
divine brother and Lord, and to that of his young apostolic brother, 
whose name and fate were equally like his, — a testimony which 
sealed anew the truth of his own record against the sins of the 
oppressors, published in his last great earthly work : — " Ye have 
condemned and killed the just ; yet he doth not resist you." 



SIMON ZELOTES. 



HIS NAME. 



The often-recurring difficulty about the distinctive appellations 
of the apostles, forms the most prominent point of inquiry in the 
life of this person, otherwise so little known as to afford hardly a 
single topic for the apostolic historian. The dispute here indeed 
involves no question about personal identity, but merely refers to 
the coincidence of signification between the two different words by 
which he is designated in the apostolic lists, to distinguish him 
from the illustrious chief of the twelve, who bore the same name 
with him. Matthew and Mark, in giving the names of the apos- 
tles, — the only occasion on which they name him, — call him 
" Simon the Cananite ;" but Luke, in a similar notice, mentions 
him as " Simon Zelotes ;" and the question then arises, whether 
these two distinctive appellations have not a common origin. In 
the vernacular language of Palestine, the word from which Ca- 
nanite is derived, has a meaning identical with that of the root of 
the Greek word Zelotes ; and hence it is most rationally concluded, 
that the latter is a translation of the former, — Luke, who wrote 
entirely for Greeks, choosing to translate into their language a 
term whose original force could be apprehended only by those ac- 
quainted with the local circumstances with which it was connected. 
The name Zelotes, which may be faithfully translated by its 
English derivative, Zealot, has a meaning deeply involved in 
some of the most bloody scenes in the history of the Jews, in the 
apostolic age. This name, or rather its Hebrew original, was 
assumed by a set of ferocious desperadoes, who, under the honor- 
able pretense of a holy zeal for their country and religion, set all 
law at defiance ; and, constituting themselves at once the judges 
and the executors of right, they went through the land, waging 
war against the Romans, and all who peacefully submitted to that 
foreign sway. This sect, however, did not arise by this name 
until many years after the death of Jesus, and there is no good 
reason to suppose that Simon derived his surname from any con- 



SIMON ZELOTES. 435 

nexion with the bloody Zealots, who did their utmost to increase 
the last agonies of their distracted country, but from a more holy 
zeal displayed in a more righteous manner. It may have been 
simply characteristic of his general conduct, or it may have refer- 
red to some particular occasion in which he decidedly evinced this 
trait of zeal in a righteous cause. 

The Cananite.— In respect to this name, a most absurd and unjustifiable blunder 
has stood in all the common versions of it, which deserves notice. This is the repre- 
sentation of the word in the form, " Canaanite" which is a gross perversion of the 
original. The Greek word is Kavavirm, (Kananites,) a totally different word from 
that which is used both in the New Testament and in the Alexandrine version of the 
Old, to express the Hebrew term for an inhabitant of Canaan. The name of the 
land of Canaan is always expressed by the aspirated form, X-avaav, which in the Latin 
and all modern versions is very properly expressed by " Chanaan." In Matt. xv. 22, 
where the Canaanitish woman is spoken of, the original is Xavavaia, (Chananaia,) 
nor is there any passage in which the name of an inhabitant of Canaan is expressed 
by the form Kavayirris, (Cananites,) with the smooth K, and the single A. Yet the 
Latin ecclesiastic writers, and even the usually accurate Natalis Alexander, express 
this apostle's name as " Simon Chananaeus" which is the word for " Canaanite." 

The true force and derivation of the word is this. The name assumed in the lan- 
guage of Palestine by the ferocious sect above mentioned, was derived from the He- 
brew primitive s:p (Qana or Kana,) and thence the name Mip (Kanani) was very 
fairly expressed, according to the forms and terminations of the Greek, by Kavavims, 
(Kananites.) The Hebrew root is a verb which means " to be zealous" and the name 
derived from it of course means, " one who is zealous" of which the just Greek trans- 
lation is the word Z^Xwr^s, (Zelotes,) the very name by which Luke represents it in 
this instance. (Luke vi. 15. Acts i. 13.) One of these names is, in short, a mere 
translation of the other, — nor is there any way of evading this construction, except 
by supposing that Luke was mistaken in supposing that Simon was called " the 
Zealot/' being deceived by the resemblance of the name " Cananites," to the Hebrew 
name of that sect. But no believer in the inspiration of the gospel can allow this sup- 
position. Equally unfounded, and inconsistent with Luke's translation, is the notion 
that the name Cananite is derived from Cana, the village of Galilee, famous as the 
scene of Christ's first miracle. 

The account given in the Life of Matthew shows the character of this sect, as it 
existed in the last days of the Jewish state. Josephus describes them very fully in his 
history of the Jewish War, (iv. 3.) Simon probably received this name, however, 
not from any connexion with a sect which arose long after the death of Christ, but 
from something in his own character which showed a great zeal for the cause which 
he had espoused. 

HIS HISTORY. 

No very direct statement as to his parentage is made in the 
New Testament ; but one or two incidental allusions to some cir- 
cumstances connected with it, afford ground for a reasonable con- 
clusion on this point. In the enumeration which Matthew and 
Mark give of the four brothers of Jesus, in the discourse of the 
offended citizens of Nazareth, Simon is mentioned along with 
James, Juda, and Joses. It is worthy of notice, also, that on all 
the apostolic lists, Simon the apostle is mentioned between the 
brothers James and Juda ; an arrangement that cannot be account- 
ed for, except by supposing that he was also the brother of James. 
The reason why Juda is distinctly specified as the brother of James, 

57 



436 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

while Simon is mentioned without reference to any such relation- 
ship, is, doubtless, that the latter was so well known by the appel- 
lation of the Zealot, that there was no need of specifying his 
relations, to distinguish him from Simon Peter. These two cir- 
cumstances. incidentally mentioned, may be considered as justifying 
the supposition, that Simon Zelotes was the same person as Simon 
the brother of Jesus. In this manner, all the old writers have 
understood the connexion ; and though such use is no authority, 
it is worth mentioning, that the monkish chroniclers always con- 
sider Simon Zelotes as the brother of Juda ; and they associate 
these two, as wandering together in eastern countries, to preach 
the gospel in Persia and Mesopotamia. The few respectable au- 
thorities, also, that make any mention of him, speak decidedly of 
Mesopotamia as the scene of his apostolic labors, and of Persia as 
the country where he died ; all which go to confirm the general 
testimony in favor of the movement of the apostles from Jerusalem, 
just before its destruction, to the countries east of the Euphrates. 

Others carry him into much more improbable wanderings. 
Egypt and Northern Africa, and even Britain, are mentioned as 
the scenes of his apostolic labors, in the ingenious narratives of 
those who undertook to supply almost every one of the nations of 
the eastern continent with an apostolic patron saint. All this is 
very poor consolation for the general dearth of facts in relation to 
this apostle ; and the searcher for historical truth will not be so 
well satisfied with the tedious tales of monkish romance, as with 
the decided and unquestionable assurance, that the whole history 
of this apostle, from beginning to end, is perfectly unknown, and 
that not one action of his life has been preserved from the darkness 
of an utterly impenetrable oblivion. 



JUDE 



HIS NAME. 

The number of instances, among the men of the apostolic age, 
of two persons bearing the same name, is very curious, and seems 
to show a great poverty of appellatives among their parents. 
Among the twelve there are two Simons, two Jameses, and two 
Judases ; and including those whose labors were any way con- 
nected with theirs, there are three Johns, (the Baptist, the Apostle, 
and John Mark,) and two Philips, besides other minor coincidences. 
The confusion which this repetition of names causes among com- 
mon readers, is truly undesirable ; and it requires attention for 
them to avoid error. In the case of this apostle, indeed, the occa- 
sion of error is obviated for the most part, by a slight change in 
the termination ; his name being generally written Juda, (in 
modern versions, Jude,) while the wretched traitor who bears the 
same name, preserves the common form terminating in S, which 
is also the form in which Luke and John express this apostle's 
name. A more serious difficulty occurs, however, in a diversity 
noticed between the account given by the two first evangelists, and 
the forms in which his name is expressed in the writings of Luke 
and John, and in the introduction to his own epistle. Matthew 
and Mark, in giving the names of the apostles, mention in the tenth 
place, the name of Thaddeus, to whom the former evangelist also 
gives the name of Lebbeus. They give him a place before Simon 
Zelotes, and immediately after James, the son of Alpheus. Luke 
gives the tenth place to Simon Zelotes, in both his lists, and after 
him mentions " Judas, the brother of James f and John speaks of 
" Judas, (not Iscariot,") among the chosen disciples. Jude, in his 
epistle also, announces himself as " the brother of James." From 
all these circumstances it would seem to be very fairly inferred, that 
Judas, or Juda, the brother of James, and Lebbeus or Thaddeus, 
were all only different names of the same apostle. But this view 
is by no means universally received, and some have been found 
bold enough to declare, that these two sets of names referred to 



438 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

different persons, both of whom were at different times numbered 
among the twelve apostles, and were received or excluded from 
the list by Jesus, from some various circumstances, now unknown ; 
— or were perhaps considered such by one evangelist or another, 
according to the notions and individual preferences of each writer. 
But such a view is so opposed to the established impressions of the 
uniform and fixed character of the apostolic list, and of the con- 
sistency of different parts of the sacred record, that it may very 
justly be rejected without the trouble of a discussion. 

Another inquiry still, concerning this apostle, is — whether he is 
the same as that Judas who is mentioned along with James, Joses, 
and Simon, as the brother of Jesus. All the important points in- 
volved in this question, have been already fully discussed in the 
life of James the Little ; and if the conclusion of that argument 
is correct, the irresistible consequence is, that the apostle Jude was 
also one of these relatives of Jesus. The absurdity of the view 
of his being a different person, cannot be better exposed than by a 
simple statement of its assertions. It requires the reader to believe 
that there was a Judas, and a James, brothers and apostles ; and 
another Judas and another James, also brothers, and brothers of 
Jesus, but not apostles ; and that these are all mentioned in the 
New Testament without any thing like a satisfactory explanation 
of the reality and distinctness of this remarkable duplicate of 
brotherhoods. Add to this, moreover, the circumstance that Juda, 
the author of the epistle, specifies himself as "the brother of 
James," as though that were sufficient to prevent his being con- 
founded with any other Judas or Juda in this world ; — a specifica- 
tion totally useless, if there was another Judas, the brother of 
another James, all eminent as Christian teachers. 

There is still another question connected with his simple entity 
and identity. Ancient traditions make mention of a Thaddeus, 
who first preached the gospel in the interior of Syria ; and the 
question is, whether he is the same person as the apostle Juda, 
who is called Thaddeus by Matthew and Mark. The great ma- 
jority of ancient writers, more especially the Syrians, consider the 
missionary Thaddeus not as one of the twelve apostles, but as one 
of the seventy disciples, sent out by Jesus in the same way as the 
select twelve. Another confirmation of the view that he was a 
different person from the apostle Jude, is found in the circum- 
stance, that the epistle which bears the name of the latter, was 
not for several centuries received by the Syrian churches, though 



jude. 439 

generally adopted throughout all Christendom, as an inspired 
apostolic writing. But surely, if their national evangelizer had 
been identical with the apostle Jude, who wrote that epistle, they 
would have been the first to acknowledge its authenticity and au- 
thority, and to receive it into their scriptural canon. 

So perfectly destitute are the gospel and apostolic history of the 
slightest account of this apostle's life and actions, that his whole 
biography may be considered complete in the mere settlement of 
his name and identity. The only word that has been preserved 
as coming from his lips, is recorded in John's account of the part- 
ing discourses of Jesus to his disciples, on the eve of his crucifix- 
ion. Jesus was promising them that the love of God should be 
the sign and the reward of him who faithfully kept his command- 
ments, — " He that holds and keeps my commandments, is the man 
that loves me ; and he that loves me shall be loved by my Father ; 
and I will love him and manifest myself to him." These words 
constituted the occasion* of the remark of Judas, thus recorded by 
John. " Judas (not Iscariot) says to him — c Lord ! how is it that 
thou wilt manifest thyself to us as thou dost not to the world?' 
Jesus answered and said to him — ' If a man love me, he will keep 
my words ; and my Father will love him, and we will come to 
him, and make our abode with him.' " A natural inquiry, aptly 
and happily suggested, and most clearly and satisfactorily answer- 
ed, in the plain but illustrative words of the divine teacher ! 
Would that the honest inquirer after the true, simple meaning of 
the words of God, might have his painful researches through the 
wisdom of ages, as well rewarded as did the favored hearers of 
Jesus ! And would that the trying efforts of critical thought 
might end in a result so brilliant and so cheering ! 

Jude is also undoubtedly the person mentioned as associated 
with Silas in the mission from the apostolic assembly at Jerusa- 
lem to the church of Antioch, on the return of Barnabas and Paul. 
In that brief statement he is mentioned under the name of Judas 
Barsabas. This surname is also applied, in the first chapter of 
the Acts, to Joseph Justus, one of the candidates for the apostle- 
ship. When it is remembered that Matthew and Mark speak of 
Joses and Judas, along with James and Simon, as the brothers of 
Jesus, the confirmation of the identity of those just mentioned 
under the same name, whether Judases, Jameses, Josephs, or Si- 
mons, is strong and palpable. 
The name Barsabas is interpreted by Lightfoot as meaning " the son of the aged," 



440 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

yzv (saba,)—z. name perhaps appropriate to Joseph, the father of these brothers of 
Jesus. This meaning of the Hebrew root, however, is doubtful. 

From Hegesippus is derived, through Eusebius, a story connected with this apostie, 
which implies that he had children. The aspect of the account is rather dubious ; 
but coming on such early authority, it deserves commemoration, if not belief. The 
tale is as follows: " In the time of the emperor Domitian there still survived some of 
the kindred of Jesus Christ, the grandsons of Juda, who was called his brother after 
the flesh. These being spoken of as descended from David, were brought by one 
of the emperor's body-guard to Domitian Caesar; for that monarch was alarmed 
about the coming of Christ, even as Herod was before. The emperor asked them if 
they were descended from David, and they acknowledged that they were. He then 
asked how much property they had ; — to which they replied, that they had only nine 
thousand pence to be shared between them, — not indeed that amount of money, but 
thirty-nine acres of ground, valued at that, from the productions of which they paid 
their taxes; nor could they obtain their food except by their own labor, which had 
left its marks on their hands in callous hardness. Being asked respecting Christ's 
kingdom, when and where it would appear, they replied, that it was not of this world, 
nor founded on earth, but was heavenly and angelic, and would appear in the end of 
time, when Christ coming in glory shall judge the living and the dead, and give 
every man the reward, of his works. Domitian, therefore, in contempt of their hum- 
ble condition, passed no sentence against them, but sent them away free. At the same 
time, by decree, he put an end to the persecution then raging against the church. 
And they after their dismissal were noted in the churches as being at once both 
Christ's vntnesses (fidpTvpas, commonly translated martyrs, though they were not put 
to death) and his relations. Peace being restored, they survived to the time of Tra- 
jan." This is the whole extract made from Hegesippus by Eusebius. (Hist. Ecc. 
iii. 20.) At best, it has but a dubious character ; and the concluding statement, that 
Domitian himself put a stop to the perseculion, is opposed to the general testimony of 
the ancients, that this was done by Nerva, his successor. The whole has little appear- 
ance of probability 

HIS EPISTLE. 

The solitary monument and testimony of his apostolic labors, are 
found in that brief, but strongly characterized and peculiar writing, 
which bears his name, and forms the last portion, but one, of the 
modern scriptural canon. Short as it is, and obscure, too, by the 
numerous references it contains, to local and temporary circum- 
stances, there is much expressed in this little portion of the apostolic 
writings, which is highly interesting to the inquirer into the darker 
portions of the earliest Christian history. 

Several very remarkable circumstances in this epistle, have, from 
the earliest ages of Christian theology, excited great inquiry among 
writers, and in many cases have not only led commentators and 
critics to pronounce the work very suspicious in its character, but 
even absolutely to condemn it as unworthy of a place in the sacred 
canon. One of these circumstances is, that the writer quotes apoc- 
ryphal books of a mystical and superstitious character, that have 
never been received by Christians or Jews, as possessing any divine 
authority, nor as entitled to any regard whatever in religious matters. 
At least two distinct quotations from these confessedly fictitious 
writings, are found in this brief epistle. The first is from the book 
of Enoch, which has been preserved even to the present day, in the 
Ethiopic translation ; the original Hebrew having been irrecoverably 
lost. Some of the highest authorities in orthodoxy and in learning 
have pronounced the original to have been a very ancient writing ; 



JUDE. 441 

—a forgery, indeed, since it professed to be the writing of Enoch 
himself,— but made up in the earliest ages of Rabbinical literature, 
after the Old Testament canon was completed, but before any por- 
tion of the New Testament Was written, — probably some years before 
the Christian era, though the means of ascertaining its exact date 
are wanting. Another quotation, equally remarkable, occurs in this 
epistle, without any mention being made, however, of the exact 
source from which the passage has been drawn ; and the point is at 
present a subject of dispute, — as references have been made by dif- 
ferent authorities, ancient and modern, to different apocryphal Jew- 
ish books, which contain similar passages. But the most valuable 
authorities, both ancient and modern, decide it to be a work now 
universally allowed to be apocryphal, — " the Ascension of Moses," 
which is directly quoted as authority on a subject altogether removed 
from human knowledge, and on which no testimony could be of any 
value, except it were derived directly and solely from the sources of 
inspiration. The consequence of these references to these two doubt- 
ful authorities, is, that many of the critical examiners of this epistle, 
in all ages, have felt themselves justified in condemning it. 

Tertullian (A. D. 200) is the earliest writer who has distinctly quoted this epistle. 
He refers to it in connexion with the quotation from the book of Enoch. " Hence it 
is that Enoch is quoted by the apostle Jude." (De cultu feminarum, 3.) Clement of 
Alexandria also repeatedly quotes the epistle of Jude as an apostolic writing. Ori- 
gen (A. D. 230) very clearly expresses his opinion in favor of this epistle as the pro- 
duction of Jude, the brother of Jesus. In his commentary on Matt. xiii. 55, where 
James, Simon, and Jude, are mentioned, he says — "Jude wrote an epistle, of few 
lines indeed, but full of powerful words of heavenly grace, who at the beginning, says 
— ■ Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James.' " Origen thought 
every thing connected with this epistle, of such high authority, that he considered 
the apocryphal book of " the Ascension of Moses," a work of authority, because it 
had been quoted by Jude, (verse 9.) He confesses, however, that there were some 
who doubted the authenticity of the epistle of Jude ; and that this was the fact, ap- 
pears still more distinctly from the account of the apostolic writings, given by Euse- 
bius, (A. D. 320,) who sets it down among the disputed writings. The ancient Syriac 
version (executed before A. D. 100) rejects this, as well as the second of Peter, and 
the second and third of John. After the fourth century, all these became universally 
established in the Greek and Latin churches. The great Michaelis, however, utterly 
condemns it as probably a forgery. (Introd. IV. xxix. 5.) 

The clearest statement of the character of this reference to the book of Enoch, is 
given by Hug's translator, Dr. Wait. (Introd. Vol. II. p. 618, note.) 

" This manifestly appears to have been the reason why Jude cited apocryphal 
works in his epistle, viz. for the sake of refuting their own assertions from those pro- 
ductions, which, like the rest of their nation, they most probably respected. For this 
purpose the book of Enoch was peculiarly calculated, since in the midst of all its 
ineptiae and absurdities, this point, and the orders of the spiritual world, are strongly 
urged and discussed in it. It is irrelevant to the inquiry, how much of the present 
book existed at this time, for that it was framed by different writers, and at different 
periods, no critic can deny ; yet that this was the leading character of the work, and 
that these were the prominent dogmata of those parts which were then in existence, 
we have every presumptive evidence. The Hebrew names of angels, &c, such as 
the Ophanim, plainly indicate it to have been a translation from some lost Jewish 
original, which was doubtless known both to Peter and to Jude ; nor can the unpre- 
judiced examiner of these epistles well hesitate to acknowledge Hug's explanation 
of them to be the most correct and the most reasonable." 

The whole defense of the epistle against these imputations, may 
be grounded upon the supposition, that the apostle was writing 



442 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

against a peculiar class of heretics, who did acknowledge these apoc- 
ryphal books to be of divine authority, and to whom he might quote 
these with a view to show, that even by their own standards of truth, 
their errors of doctrine and life must be condemned. The sect of 
the Gnostics has been already mentioned in the life of John, as being 
the first ever known to have perverted the purity of Christian doc- 
trine, by heresy. These heretics certainly are not very fully de- 
scribed in those few passages of this short epistle that are directed at 
the errors of doctrine ; but the character of those errors which Jude 
denounces, is accordant with what is known of some of the promi- 
nent peculiarities of the Gnostics. But whatever may have been the 
particular character of these heretics, it is evident that they must, 
like the great majority of the Jews in those days, have acknowledged 
the divine authority of these ancient apocryphal writings ; and the 
apostle was therefore right in making use of quotations from these 
works, to refute their very remarkable errors. The evils which he 
denounced, however, were not merely of a speculative character ; 
but he more especially condemns their gross immoralities, as a scan- 
dal and an outrage on the purity of the Christian assemblies with 
which they still associated. In all those passages where these vices 
are referred to, it will be observed that both immoralities and doc- 
trinal errors are included in one common condemnation, which 
shows that both were inseparably connected in the conduct of 
those heretics whom the writer condemns. This circumstance also 
does much to identify them with some of the Gnostical sects before 
alluded to, — more especially with the Nicolaitans, as they are called 
by John in the beginning of the Apocalypse, where he is addressing 
the church of Pergamus. In respect to this very remarkable pecu- 
liarity of a vicious and abominable life, combined with speculative 
errors, the ancient Christian writers very fully describe the Nicolai- 
tans ; and their accounts are so unanimous, and their accusations so 
definite, that it is just and reasonable to consider this epistle as di- 
rected particularly against them. 

Nicolaitans. — An allusion has already been made to this sect in the life of John, 
but they deserve a distinct reference here also, as they are so distinctly mentioned in 
Jude's epistle. The explanation of the name, which in the former passage (page 363) 
was crowded out by other matters prolonging that part of the work beyond its due 
limits, may here be given most satisfactorily, in the words of the learned Dr. Hug. 
(Introd. Vol. II. note, § 182, original, § 174, translation.) 

" The arguments of those who decide them to have been the Nicolaitans, accord- 
ing to my opinion, are at present the following : — John, in the Apocalypse, describes 
the Nicolaitans nearly as the heretics are here represented to us, with the same com- 
parison, and with the same vices; persons who exercise the arts of Balaam, who 
taught Balak to ensnare the children of Israel, and to induce them to partake of idol- 
atrous sacrifices, and to fornicate, (Acts ii. 14; Jude 2; 2 Peter ii. 15.) Even nyVa, 
according to its derivation, is equivalent to Ni'/coXao?. They also certainly denied the 
Lord's creation and government of the world. Allerum quidem fabricatorem, alium 

autem Patrem Domini et earn conditionem, quae est secundum nos non a primo 

Deo factam, sed a Virtme aliqua valde deorsum subjecta. (Iren. L. iii. c. 11.) If 
now all corporeal and material existence has its origin from the Creator of the world, 
who is a very imperfect and gross spirit, it flows naturally from this notion, that they 
could not admit a corporeal resuscitation by the agency of the Supreme Being, or by 



jude. 443 

the agency of Jesus, in a universal day of judgment. With respect to the spiritual 
world, they also actually taught such absurdities, that it must be said of them, 66{as 
0\a<T(priiJLov<Ti ; for they supposed, Aeones quosdam turpitudinis natos ; et complexus, et 
permixtiones, execrabiles, et obscaenas. (Tertullianus in append, ad Lib. de praes- 
cript. c. 46.) But, as to their excesses and abominable mode of life, the accounts of 
the ancients are so unanimous, and the accusations are so constituted, that the two 
apostolic epistles may have most pertinently referred to them." 

Another circumstance in this epistle which has attracted a critical 
notice, and which has occasioned its condemnation by some, is the 
remarkable coincidence both of sense and words between it and the 
second chapter of the second epistle of Peter. There are probably 
few diligent readers of the New Testament to whom this has not 
been a subject of curious remark, as several verses in one, seem a 
mere transcript of corresponding passages in the other. Various 
conjectures have been made to account for this resemblance in mat- 
ter and in words, — some supposing Jude to have written first, and 
concluding that Peter, writing to the same persons, made references 
in this manner to the substance of what they had already learned 
from another apostle, — and others supposing that Peter wrote first, 
and that Jude followed and amplified a portion of the epistle which 
had already lightly touched in some parts only upon the particular 
errors which the latter writer wished more especially to refute and 
condemn. This coincidence is nevertheless no more a ground for 
rejecting one or the other of the two writings, than the far more per- 
fect parallelisms between the gospels are a reason for concluding 
that only one of them can be an authorized document. Both the 
apostles were evidently denouncing the same errors and condemning 
the same vices, and nothing was more natural than that this simi- 
larity of purpose should produce a proportional similarity of lan- 
guage. Either of the above suppositions is consistent with the char- 
acter of the writings ; — Peter may have written first, and Jude may 
have taken a portion of that epistle as furnishing hints for a more 
protracted view of these particular points ; or, on the supposition that 
Jude wrote first, Peter may have thought it worth while only to refer 
generally, and not to d well very particularly on those points which 
his fellow-apostle had already so fully and powerfully treated. 

The particular churches to which this epistle was addressed, are 
utterly unknown ; nor do modern writers pretend to find any means 
of detecting the places to which it was addressed in any peculiar 
passage, except so far as the chief seats of the heretics, against whom 
he wrote, are supposed to be known. Asia Minor, Syria, and the 
East, were the regions to which the Gnostical errors were mostly 
confined ; and in the former country more especially they were ob- 
jects of attention to the ministers of truth, during the apostolic age, 
and in succeeding times. It was probably intended for the same per- 
sons to whom Peter wrote ; and what has been said on the direction 
of his two epistles, will illustrate the immediate design of this also. 

Its date is involved in the same uncertainty that covers all points 
in its own history and that of its author ; the prominent difficulty 
58 



444 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

being its great brevity, in consequence of which it offers but few 
characteristics of any kind, for the decision of doubtful points ; and 
the life and works of Jude must therefore be set down among those 
matters, in which the indifference of those who could once have 
preserved historical truth for the eyes of posterity, has left even tb ~\ 
research of modern criticism, not one hook to hang a guess upon. 



JUDAS 1SCARIOT. 



This name doubtless strikes the eye of the Christian reader, as 
almost a stain to the fair page of apostolic history, and a dishonor 
to the noble list of the holy, with whom the traitor was associated. 
But he who knew the hearts of all men from the beginning, even 
before their actions had developed and displayed their characters, 
chose this man among those whom he first sent forth on the mes- 
sage of coming grace ; and all the gospel records bear the name 
of the traitor along with those who were faithful even unto death ; 
nor does it behoove the unconsecrated historian to affect, about the 
arrangement of this name, a delicacy which the gospel writers did 
not manifest. 

Of his birth, his home, his occupation, his call, and his previous 
character, the sacred writer bear no testimony ; and all which 
the inventive genius of modern criticism has been able to present, 
in respect to any of these circumstances, is drawn from no more 
certain source than the various proposed etymologies and signifi- 
cations of his name. But the plausibility which is worn by each 
one of these numerous derivations, is of itself a sufficient proof of 
the little dependence which can be placed upon any conclusion so 
lightly founded. The inquirer is therefore safest in following 
merely the reasonable conjecture, that his previous character had 
been respectable, not manifesting to the world at least, any base- 
ness which would make him an infamous associate. For though 
the Savior, in selecting the chief ministers of his gospel, did not 
take them from the wealthy, the high-born, the refined, or the 
learned ; and though he did not scruple even to take those of a low 
and degraded occupation, — his choice would nevertheless entirely 
exclude those who were in any way marked by previous charac- 
ter, as more immoral than the generality of the people among 
whom they lived. In short, it is very reasonable to suppose, that 
Judas Iscariot was a respectable man, probably with a character as 
good as most of his neighbors had, though he may have been con- 
sidered by some of his acquaintance, as a close, sharp man in 



446 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

money matters ; for this is a character most unquestionably fixed 
on him in those few and brief allusions which are made to him 
in the gospel narratives. Whatever may have been the business 
to which he had been devoted during his previous life, he had 
probably acquired a good reputation for honesty, as well as for 
careful management of property ; for he is on two occasions dis- 
tinctly specified as the treasurer and steward of the little company 
or family of Jesus ; — an office for which he would not have been 
selected, unless he had maintained such a character as that above 
imputed to him. Even after his admission into the fraternity, he 
still betrayed his strong acquisitiveness, in a manner that will be 
fully exhibited in the history of the occurrence in which it was 
most remarkably developed. 

Iscariot.— The present form of this word appears from the testimony of Beza, to be 
different from the original one, which, in his oldest copy of the New Testament, was 
given without the / in the beginning, simply EK-apcwT/jj, (Scariotes ;) and this is con- 
firmed by the very ancient Syriac version, which expresses it by {_ ?Ci^ > . *^ ffi 
(Sckaryuta.) Origen also, the oldest of the Christian commentators, (A. D. 230,) 
gives the word without the initial vowel, " Scariot." It is most reasonable, therefore, 
to conclude that the name was originally Scariot, and that the /was prefixed, for the 
sake of the easier pronunciation of the two initial consonants ; for some languages 
are so smoothly constructed, that they do not allow even *S to precede a mute, without 
a vowel before. Just as the Turks, in taking up the names of Greek towns, change 
Scopia into Iscopia, Smyrna into Ismir, &c. The French too, change the Latin 
Spiritus into Esprit, as do the Spaniards into Espiriiu ; and similar instances are 
numerous. 

The very learned Matthew Poole, in his Synopsis Criticorum, (Matt. x. 4,) gives 
a very full view of the various interpretations of this name. Six distinct etymologies 
and significations of this word have been proposed, most of which appear so plausi- 
ble, that it may seem hard to decide on their comparative probabilities. That which 
is best justified by the easy transition from the theme, and by the aptness of the signi- 
nification to the circumstances of the persons, is the first, proposed by an anonymous 
author quoted in the Parallels of Junius, and adopted by Poole. This is the deriva- 
tion from the Syriac T _ ^O , i . *~} CD (sekharyut,) " a bag" or "purse ;" root cognate 
with the Hebrew *od (sakhar,) No. 1, Gibbs's Hebrew Lexicon, and i» (sagar,) Syr. 
and Arab. id. The word thus derived must mean the " bag-man," the "purser," 
which is a most happy illustration of John's account of the office of Judas, (xii. 6. 
xiii. 29.) It is, in short, a name descriptive of his peculiar duty in receiving the 
money of the common stock of Christ and his apostles, buying the necessary pro- 
visions, administering their common charities to the poor, and managing all their 
pecuniary affairs, — performing all the duties of that officer who in English is called 
a " steward." Judas Iscariot, or rather " Scariot" means, therefore, " Judas the 

STEWARD." 

The second derivation proposed is that of Junius, {Parall.) who refers it to a sense 
descriptive of his fate. The Syriac, Hebrew, and Arabic root, *od (sakar,) has in the 
first of these languages, the secondary signification of " strangle" and the personal 
substantive derived from it, might therefore mean, " one who was strangled." Light- 
foot says that if this theme is to be adopted, he should prefer to trace the name to the 
word N-otrN which with the Rabbinical writers is used in reference to the same prim- 
itive, in the meaning of " strangulation." But both these, even without regarding the 
great aptness of the first definition above given, may be condemned on their own de- 
merits ; because, they suppose either that this name was applied to him only after his 
death, — an exceedingly unnatural view, — or (what is vastly more absurd) that he 
was thus named during his life-time, by a prophetical anticipation, that he would die 






JUDAS ISCARIOT. 447 

by the halter ! ! ! It is not very uncommon, to be sure, for such charitable prophetic 
inferences to be drawn respecting the character and destiny of the graceless, and the 
point of some vulgar proverbs consists in this very allusion ; but the utmost stretch of 
such predictions never goes to the degree of fixing upon the hopeful candidate for the 
gallows, a surname drawn from this comfortable anticipation of his destiny. Be- 
sides, it is hard to believe that a man wearing thus, as it were, a halter around his 
neck, would have been called by Jesus into the goodly fellowship of the apostles ; for 
though neither rank, nor wealth, nor education, nor refinement, were requisites for 
admission, yet a tolerably good moral character maybe fairly presumed to have been 
an indispensable qualification. 

The third derivation is of such a complicated and far-fetched character, that it 
bears its condemnation on its own face. It is that of the learned Tremellius, who at- 
tempts to analyze Iscariot into tov (seker,) " wages," " reward," and ncs (natah,) 
" turn away," alluding to the fact that for money he revolted from his Master. This, 
besides its other difficulties, supposes that the name was conferred after his death ; 
whereas he must certainly have needed during his life some appellative to distinguish 
him from Judas, the brother of James. 

The fourth is that of Grotius and Erasmus, who derive it from -o»»* r»K (Ish Issa- 
char,) " a man of Issachar," — supposing the name to designate his tribe, just as the 
same phrase occurs in Judges x. 1. But all these distinctions of origin from the ten 
tribes must have been utterly lost in the time of Christ; nor does any instance occur 
of a Jew of the apostolic age being named from his supposed tribe. 

The fifth is the one suggested and adopted by Lightfoot. In the Talmudic Hebrew, 
the word KMsnipD (sekurti,) — also written with an initial n (aleph,) and pronounced 
Iscurti, — has the meaning of " leather apron ;" and this great Hebraician proposes, 
therefore, to translate the name, " Judas with the leather apron ;" and suggests some 
aptness in such a personal appendage, because in such aprons they had pockets or 
bags, in which money, &c. might be carried. The whole derivation, however, is 
forced and far-fetched, — doing great violence to the presenkform of the word, and is 
altogether unworthy of the genius of its inventor, who is usually very acute in ety- 
mologies. 

The sixth is that of Beza, Piscator, and Hammond, who make it nvnp-a^N (Ish- 
Qerioth or Kerioth,) " a man of Kerioth" a city of Judah. (Josh. xv. 25.) Beza 
says that a very ancient MS. of the Greek New Testament, in his possession, (above 
referred to,) in all the five passages in John, where Judas is mentioned, has this sur- 
name written d™ Kapitorov, (apo Cariotou,) " Judas of Kerioth." Lucas Brugensis 
observes that this form of expression is used in Ezra ii. 22, 23, where the " men of 
Anathoth," &c. are spoken of; but there is no parallelism whatever between the two 
cases ; because in the passage quoted it is a mere general designation of the inhabit- 
ants of a place, — nor can any passage be shown in which it is thus appended to a 
man's name, by way of surname. The peculiarity of Beza's MS. is therefore un- 
doubtedly an unauthorized perversion by some ancient copyist ; for it is not found on 
any other ancient authority. 

The motives which led such a man to join himself to the fol- 
lowers of the self-denying Nazarene, of course could not have been 
of a very high order ; yet it may be remembered that one of the 
chosen disciples of Jesus is mentioned in the solemnly faithful 
narrative of the evangelists, as inspired by a self-denying princi- 
ple of action, in the earlier stages of their history. Wherever an 
occasion appeared on which their true motives and feelings could 
be displayed, they all, without exception, manifested a selfish dis- 
position, and seemed inspired chiefly by the expectation of world- 
ly honors, triumphs, and rewards to be won in his service ! 
Peter, indeed, is not very distinctly specified as betraying any re- 
markable regard for his own individual interest, and on several 
occasions manifested, certainly by starts, much of a true self-sacrirl- 



448 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

cing devotion to his Master ; yet his great views in beginning to 
follow Jesus were unquestionably of an ambitious order, and for a 
long time his noblest conception was that of a worldly triumph, in 
which the chosen ones were to have a share proportioned no doubt 
to their exertions for its attainment. The two Boanerges betrayed 
the selfishness of their spirit, in scheming for a lion's share in the 
spoils of victory ; and the whole body of the disciples, on more 
than one occasion, contended among themselves about the first 
places in Christ's kingdom. Judas, therefore, was not greatly 
worse at the beginning than his fellow-disciples ; and probably 
maintained on the whole a respectable stand among them, unless 
occasion may have betrayed to them the fact, that he was mean 
in money matters. But he, after espousing the fortunes of 
Jesus, doubtless went on scheming for his own advancement, 
much as the rest did for theirs, except that, probably, when those 
of more liberal conceptions were contriving great schemes for 
the attainment of power, honor, fame, titles, and glory, both mili- 
tary and civil, his penny-saving soul was reveling in golden 
dreams, and his thoughts running delightfully over the prospects 
of vast gain, to be reaped in the confiscation of the property of 
the wealthy Pharisees and lawyers, that would ensue immediate- 
ly on the establishment of the empire of the Nazarene and his 
Galileans. While the great James and his amiable brother were 
contending with the rest of the fraternity about the premier- 
ships, — the highest administration of spiritual and temporal power, 
— the discreetly calculating Iscariot was doubtless expecting the 
fair results of a regular course of promotion, from the office of 
bag-carrier to the itinerant company of Galileans, to the stately 
honors and immense emoluments of lord high-treasurer of the new 
kingdom of Israel ; — his advancement naturally taking place in the 
line in which he had made his first beginning in the service of his 
Lord, he might well expect that in those very particulars where he 
had shown himself faithful in few things, he would be made ruler 
over many things, when he should enter into the joy of his Lord, — 
sharing the honors and profits of His exaltation, as he had borne 
his part in the toils and anxieties of his humble fortunes. The 
careful management of his little stewardship, " bearing the bag, 
and what was put therein," and " buying those things that were 
necessary" for all the wants of the brotherhood of Jesus, — was a 
service of no small importance and merit, and certainly would 
deserve a consideration at the hands of his Master. Such a trust 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 449 

also, certainly implied a great confidence of Jesus in his honesty 
and discretion in money matters, and shows not only the blame- 
lessness of his character in those particulars, but the peculiar turn 
of his genius, in being selected, out of the whole twelve, for this 
very responsible and somewhat troublesome function. 

Yet the eyes of the Redeemer were by no means closed to the 
baser inclinations of this much-trusted disciple. He knew (for 
what did he not know ?) how short was the step from the steady 
adherence to the practice of a particular virtue, to the most scan- 
dalous breach of honor in that same line of action, — how slight, 
and easy, and natural, was the perversion of a truly mean soul, or 
even one of respectable and honorable purposes, from the honest 
pursuit of gain, to the absolute disregard of every circumstance 
but personal advantage, and safety from the punishment of crime, 
— a change insensibly resulting from the total absorption of the 
soul in one solitary object and aim ; for in all such cases, the ho- 
nesty is not the purpose ; it is only an incidental principle, occa- 
sionally called in to regulate the modes and means of the grand 
acquisition ; — but gain is the great end and essence of such a life, 
and the forgetfulness of every other motive, when occasion sug- 
gests, is neither unnatural nor surprising. "With all this and vastly 
more knowledge, Jesus was well able to discriminate the different 
states of mind in which the course of his discipleship found this 
calculating follower. He doubtless traced from day to day, and 
from week to week, and from month to month, as well as from 
year to year, of his weary pilgrimage, the changes of zeal, reso- 
lution, and hope, into distaste and despair, as the day of anticipated 
reward for these sacrifices seemed farther and farther removed, by 
the progress of events. The knowledge, too, of the manner in 
which these depraved propensities would at last develope them- 
selves, is distinctly expressed in the remark which he made in 
reply to Peter's declaration of the fidelity and devotion of himself 
and his fellow disciples, just after the miracle of feeding the five 
thousand by the lake, when some renounced the service of Christy 
disgusted with the revelations which he there made to them of the 
spiritual nature of his kingdom, and its rewards, and of the diffi- 
cult and disagreeable requisites for his discipleship. Jesus seeing 
the sad defection of the worldly, turned to the twelve, and said — 
:c Will ye also go away ?" Simon Peter, with ever ready zeal, re- 
plied—" Lord ! to whom shall we go but unto thee 7 For thou 
only hast the words of eternal life." Jesus answered them—" Have 



450 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is an accuser ?" This 
reply, as John in recording it remarks, alluded to Judas Iscariot, 
the son of Simon ; for he it was that was to betray him, though 
he was one of the twelve. He well knew that on no ear would 
these revelations of the pure spiritualism of his kingdom, and of 
the self-denying character of his service, fall more disagreeably 
than on that of the money-loving steward of the apostolic family, 
whose hopes would be most wofully disappointed by the uncom- 
fortable prospects of recompense, and whose thoughts would be 
henceforth contriving the means of extricating himself from all 
share in this hopeless enterprise. Still he did not, like those mal- 
contents who were not numbered among the twelve, openly re- 
nounce his discipleship, and return to the business which he had 
left for the deceptive prospect of a profitable reward. He found 
himself too deeply committed to do this with advantage, and he 
therefore discontentedly continued to follow his great summoner, 
until an opportunity should occur of leaving this undesirable ser- 
vice, with a chance of some immediate profit in the exchange. 
Nor did he yet, probably, despair entirely of some more hopeful 
scheme of revolution than was now held up to view. He might 
occasionally have been led to hope, that these gloomy announce- 
ments were but a trial of the constancy of the chosen, and that 
all things would yet turn out as their high expectations had plan- 
ned. In the occasional remarks of Jesus, there was also much, 
which an unspiritual and sordid hearer, might very naturally con- 
strue into a more comfortable accomplishment of his views, and in 
which such a one would think he found the distinct expression 
of the real purposes of Jesus in reference to the reward of his dis- 
ciples. Such an instance, was the reply made to Peter when he 
reminded his Master of the great pecuniary sacrifices which they 
had all made in his service : "Lo! we have left all, and followed 
thee." The assurances contained in the reply of Jesus, that among 
other things, those who had left houses and lands for his sake, 
should receive a hundred fold more in the day of his triumph, 
must have favorably impressed the baser-minded with some idea 
of a real, solid return for the seemingly unprofitable investment 
which they had made in his scheme. Or, on the other hand, if 
the faith and hope of Iscariot in the word of Jfesus were already 
too far gone to be recalled to life by any cheering promises, these 
sayings may have only served to increase his indifference, or to 
deepen it into downright hatred, at what he would regard as a new 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 451 

deceit, designed to keep up the sinking spirits of those who had 

begun to apprehend the desperate character of the enterprise in 

which they had involved themselves. If his feelings had then 

reached this point of desperation, the effect of this renewal of 

promises, which he might construe into a support of his original 

views of the nature of the rewards accruing to the followers of 

Christ, on the establishment of his kingdom, would only excite 

and strengthen a deep-rooted spite against his once-adored Lord, 

and his malice, working in secret over the disappointment, would 

at last be ready to rise on some convenient occasion into active 

revenge. 

An accuser. — This is the true primary force of Siaffofos (diabolos) in this passage. 
(John vi. 70.) This word is never applied to any individual in the sense of " devil," 
except to Satan himself; but wherever it occurs as a common substantive appellation, 
descriptive of character, pointedly refers to its primary signification of " accuser," 
" calumniator," " informer," &c, the root of it being Sia(3a\\co, which means " to ac- 
cuse," " to calumniate ;" and when applied to Satan, it still preserves this sense, — 
though it then has the force of a proper name; since |icw, (Satan,) in Hebrew, means 
primarily " accuser" but acquires the force of a proper name, in its ordinary use. 
Grotius however, suggests that in this passage, the word truly corresponds to the 
Hebrew -is, (tsar,) the word which is applied to Haman, (Esth. vii. 6. viii. 1,) and 
has here the general force of " accuser," " enemy," &c. The context here (verse 71) 
shows that John referred to this sense, and that Christ applied it to Judas propheti- 
cally, — thus showing his knowledge of the fact, that this apostle would " accuse" him, 
and " inform" against him, before the Sanhedrim. Not only Grotius, but Vatablus, 
Erasmus, Lucas Brugensis, and others, maintain this rendering. 

This occasion, before long, presented itself. The successful 
labors of Jesus, in Jerusalem, had raised up against him a combi- 
nation of foes of the most determined and dangerously hostile 
character. The great dignitaries of the nation, uniting in one 
body all the legal, literary, and religious honors and influence of 
the Hebrew name, and strengthened, too, by the weight of the vast 
wealth belonging to them and their immediate supporters, as well 
as by the exaltation of high office and ancient family, had at last 
resolved to use all this immense power, (if less could not effect it,) 
for the ruin of the bold, eloquent man, who, without one of all 
the privileges which were the sources and supports of their power, 
had shaken their ancient dominion to its foundation by his simple 
words, and almost overthrown all their power over the people, 
whose eyes were now beginning to be opened to the mystery of 
w how little wisdom it took to govern them !" Self-preservation 
seemed to require an instantaneous and energetic action against 
the bold Reformer ; and they were not the men to scruple about 
the means or mode of satisfying both revenge and ambition by his 
destruction. This state of feeling among the aristocracy could 

not have been unknown to Iscariot. He had doubtless watched 
59 



452 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

its gradual developments, from day to day, during the displays in 
the temple; and as defeat followed defeat in the strife of mind, he 
had abundant opportunity to see the hostile feeling of the baffled 
and mortified Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and lawyers, mount- 
ing to the highest pitch of indignation, and furnishing him with 
the long-desired occasion of making up for his own disappoint- 
ment in his great plans for the recompense of his sacrifices, in the 
cause of Jesus. He saw that there was no chance whatever for 
the triumphant establishment of that kingdom in whose honors he 
.had expected to share. All the opportunities and means for effect- 
ing this result, Jesus was evidently determined to throw away, nor 
could any thing ever move him to such an effort as was desirable 
for the gratification of the ambition of his disciples. The more 
splendid and tempting the occasions for founding a temporal do- 
minion, the more resolutely did he seem to disappoint the golden 
hopes of his followers ; and proceeding thus, was only exposing 
himself and them to danger, without making any provision for 
their safety or escape. And where was to be the reward of Isca- 
riofs long services in the management of the stewardship of the 
apostolic fraternity'? Had he not left his business, to follow 
them about, laboring in their behalf, managing their affairs, pro- 
curing the means of subsistence for them, and exercising a respon- 
sibility which none else was so competent to assume ? And what 
recompense had he received ? None, but the almost hopeless ruin 
of his fortunes in a desperate cause. That such were the feelings 
and reflexions which his circumstances would naturally suggest, 
is very evident. The signs of the alienation of his affections from 
Jesus, are also seen in the little incident recorded by all the evan- 
gelists, of the anointing of his feet by Mary. She, in deep grati- 
tude to the adored Lord who had restored to life her beloved 
brother, brought, as the offering of her fervent love, the box of 
precious ointment of spikenard, and poured it over his feet, anoint- 
ing them, and wiping them with her hair, so that the whole house 
was filled with the fragrance. This beautiful instance of an ardent 
devotion, that would sacrifice every thing for its object, awakened 
no corresponding feeling in the narrow soul of Iscariot ; but seizing 
this occasion for the manifestation of his inborn meanness, and his 
growing spite against his Master, he indignantly exclaimed, (veil- 
ing his true motive, however, under the appearance of charitable 
regard for the poor,) — " To what purpose is this waste ? Why 
was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 453 

the poor V So specious was this honorable pretense for blaming 
what seemed the inconsiderate and extravagant devotion of Mary, 
that others of the disciples joined in the indignant remonstrance 
against this useless squandering of property, which might be con- 
verted to the valuable purpose of ministering to the necessities of 
the poor, many of whose hearts might have been gladdened by a 
well-regulated expenditure of the price of this costly offering, 
which was now irrecoverably lost. But honorable as may have 
been the motives of those who joined with Iscariot in this protest, 
the Apostle John most distinctly insists that he was moved by a 
far baser consideration. " This he said, not because he cared for 
the poor, but because he was a thief, and kept the coffer, and car- 
ried what was cast into it." This is a most distinct exposition of 
a piece of villainy in the traitor, that would have remained un- 
known, but for the record which John gives of this transaction. 
It is here declared in plain terms, that Iscariot had grossly be- 
trayed the pecuniary trust which had been committed to him on 
the score of his previous honesty, and had been guilty of down- 
right peculation, — converting to his own private purposes, the 
money which had been deposited with him as the treasurer and 
steward of the whole company of the disciples. He had probably 
made up his mind to this rascally abuse of trust, on the ground 
that he was justified in thus balancing what he had lost by his 
connexion with Jesus ; and supposed, no doubt, that the ruin of 
all those whom he was thus cheating, would be effectually secured 
before the act could be found out. What renders this crime doubly 
abominable, is, that it was robbing the poor of the generous con- 
tributions which, by the kindness of Jesus, had been appropriated 
to their use, out of this little common stock ; for it seems that Is- 
cariot was the minister of the common charities of the brother- 
hood, as well as the provider of such things as were necessary for 
their subsistence, and the steward of the common property. With 
the pollution of this base crime upon his soul, before stirred up 
to spite and disgust by disappointed ambition, he was now so dead 
to honor and decency, that he was abundantly prepared for the 
commission of the crowning act of villainy. The words in which 
Jesus rebuked his specious concern for the economical administra- 
tion of the money in charity, were also in a tone that he might 
construe into a new ground of offense, implying, as they did, that 
his zeal had some motive far removed from a true affection for that 
Master, whose life was in hourly peril, and might at any moment be 



454 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

so sacrificed by his foes, that the honorable forms of preparation 
for the burial might be denied ; and being thus already devoted 
to death, he might well accept this costly offering of pure devo- 
tion, as the mournful unction for the grave. In these sadly pro- 
phetic words, Judas may have found the immediate suggestion 
of his act of sordid treachery ; and incited, moreover, by the re- 
pulse which his remonstrance had received, he seems to have gone 
directly about the perpetration of the crime. 

The nature and immediate object of this plot may not be per- 
fectly comprehended, without considering minutely the relations 
in which Jesus stood to the Jewish Sanhedrim, and the means he 
had of resisting or evading their efforts for the consummation of 
their schemes and hopes against him. Jesus of Nazareth was, to 
the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, a dangerous foe. He had, 
during his visits to Jerusalem, in his repeated encounters with 
them in the courts of the temple, and all public places of assembly, 
struck at the very foundation of all their authority and power over 
the people. The Jewish hierarchy was supported by the sway of 
the Romans, indeed, but only because it was in accordance with 
their universal policy of tolerance, to preserve the previously 
established order of things, in all countries which they conquered, 
so long as such a preservation was desired by the people, but no 
longer than it was perfectly accordant with the feelings of the ma- 
jority. The Sanhedrim and their dependents therefore knew per- 
fectly well that their establishment could receive no support from 
the Roman government, after they had lost their dominion over 
the affections of the people ; and were therefore very ready to per- 
ceive, that if they were to be thus confounded and set at nought, 
in spite of learning and dignity, by a poor Galilean, and even 
their gravest and most puzzling attacks upon his wisdom and pru- 
dence turned into an absolute jest against them, — it was quite clear 
that the amused and delighted multitude would soon cease to re- 
gard the authority and opinions of their venerable religious and 
legal rulers, whose subtleties were so easily foiled by one of the 
common, uneducated mass. But the very circumstances which 
effected and constituted the evil, were also the grand obstacles to 
the removal of it. Jesus was by these means seated firmly in the 
love and reverence of the people ; — and of the vast number of stran- 
gers then in Jerusalem at the feast, there were very many who 
would have their feelings strongly excited in his favor, by the cir- 
cumstance that they, as well as he, were Galileans, and would 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 455 

therefore be very apt to make common cause with him in case of 
any violent attack. All these obstacles required management ; and 
after having been very many times foiled in their attempt to seize 
him, by the resolute determination of the thousands by whom he 
was always encircled to defend him, they found that they must 
contrive some way to get hold of him when he was without the 
defenses of this admiring host. This could be done, of course, 
only by following him to his secret haunts, and coming quietly 
upon him before the multitude could assemble to his aid. But his 
movements were altogether beyond their notice. No armed band 
could follow him about, as he went from the city to the country, 
in his daily and nightly walks. They needed some spy who could 
watch his private movements when unattended, save by the little 
band of the twelve, and give notice of the favorable moment for a 
seizure, when the time, the place, and the circumstances, would 
all conspire to prevent a rescue. Thus taken, he might be safely 
lodged in some of the impregnable fortresses of the temple and 
city, so as to defy the momentary burst of popular rage, on find- 
ing that their idol had been taken away. They knew, too, the 
fickle character of the commonalty well enough to feel certain, 
that when the tide of condemnation was once strongly set against 
the Nazarene, the lip-worship of "Hosannas" could be easily 
turned, by a little management, into the ferocious yell of deadly 
denunciation. The mass of the people are always essentially the 
same in their modes of action. Mobs were then managed by the 
same rules as now, and demagogues were equally well versed in 
the tricks of their trade. Besides, when Jesus had once been for- 
mally indicted and presented before the secular tribunal of the 
Roman governor, as a rioter and seditious person, no idea of a 
rescue from the military force could be entertained ; and however 
unwilling Pilate might be to minister to the wishes of the Jews, 
in an act of unnecessary cruelty, he could not resist a call thus 
solemnly made to him, in the character of preserver of the Roman 
sway, though he would probably have rejected entirely any propo- 
sition to seize Jesus by a military force, in open day, in the midst 
of the multitude, so as to create a troublesome and bloody tumult, 
by such an imprudent act. In a full consideration of all these 
difficulties, the Jewish dignitaries were sitting in conclave, con- 
triving means to effect the settlement of their troubles, by the 
complete removal of him who was unquestionably the cause of 
all. At once their anxious deliberations were happily interrupted 



456 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

by the entrance of the trusted steward of the company of Jesus, 
who changed all their doubts and distant hopes into absolute cer- 
tainty, by offering, for a reasonable consideration, to give up Jesus 
into their hands, a prisoner, without any disturbance or riot. How 
much delay and debate there was about terms, it would be hard 
to say ; but after all, the bargain made, does not seem to have been 
greatly to the credit of the liberality of the Sanhedrim, or the 
sharpness of Judas. Thirty of the largest pieces of silver then 
coined, would make but a poor price for such an extraordinary 
service, even making all allowance for a scarcity of money in 
those times. And taking into account the wealth and rank of 
those concerned, as well as the importance of the object, it is fair 
to pronounce them a very mean set of fellows. But Judas espe- 
cially seems to forfeit almost all right to the character given him 
of acuteness in money matters ; and it is only by supposing him 
to be quite carried out of his usual prudence, by his woful aban- 
donment to crime, that so poor a bargain can be made consistent 
with the otherwise reasonable view of his character. 

Thirty pieces of silver.— Hhe value of these pieces is seemingly as vaguely ex- 
pressed in the original as in the translation; but a reference to Hebrew usages 
throws some light on the question of definition. The common Hebrew coin thus 
expressed was the shekel, — equivalent to the Greek didrachmon, and worth about six- 
teen cents. In Hebrew, the expression, thirty " shekels of silver," was not always 
written out in full ; but the name of the coin being omitted, the expression was always 
equally definite, because no other coin was ever left thus to be implied. Just so in 
English, the phrase, " a million of money," is perfectly well understood here to mean 
u a million of dollars;" while in England, the current coin of that country would 
make the expression mean so many pounds. In the same manner, to say, in this 
country, that any thing or any man is worth " thousands," always conveys, with per- 
fect defmiteness, the idea of "dollars ;" and in every other country the same expres- 
sion would imply a particular coin. Thirty pieces of silver, each of which was 
worth sixteen cents, would amount only to four dollars and eighty cents, which are 
just one pound sterling. A small price for the great Jewish Sanhedrim to pay for 
ihe ruin of their most dangerous foe ! Yet for this little sum, the Savior of the world 
was bought and sold ! 

Having thus settled this business, the cheaply-purchased traitor 
returned to the unsuspecting fellowship of the apostles, mingling 
with them, as he supposed, without the slightest suspicion on the 
part of any one, respecting the horrible treachery which he had 
contrived for the bloody ruin of his Lord. But there was an eye, 
whose power he had never learned, though dwelling beneath its 
gaze for years,— an eye, which saw the vainly hidden results of 
his treachery, even as for years it had scanned the base motives 
which governed him. Yet no word of reproach or denunciation 
broke forth from the lips of the betrayed One ; the progress of 
crime was suffered unresistedly to bear him onward to the mourn- 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 457 

fully necessary fulfilment of his destiny. Judas, meanwhile, from 
day to day, waited and watched for the most desirable opportunity 
of meeting his engagements with his priestly employers. The first 
day of the feast of unleavened bread having arrived, Jesus sat 
down at evening to eat the paschal lamb with his twelve disciples, 
alone. The whole twelve were there without one exception, — 
and among those who reclined around the table, sharing in the 
social delights of the entertainment which celebrated the beginning 
of the grand national festival, was the dark-souled accuser also, 
like Satan among the sons of God. Even here, amid the general 
joyous hilarity, his great scheme of villainy formed the grand 
theme of his meditations, — and while the rest were entering fully 
into the natural enjoyments of the occasion, he was brooding over 
the best means of executing his plans. During the supper, after 
the performance of the impressive ceremony of washing their feet, 
Jesus made a sudden transition from the comments with which he 
was illustrating it ; and, in a tone of deep and sorrowful emotion, 
suddenly exclaimed — " I solemnly assure you, that one of you will 
betray me." This surprising assertion, so emphatically made, ex- 
cited the most distressful sensations among the little assembly ; — 
all enjoyment was at an end ; and grieved by the imputation, in 
which all seemed included until the individual was pointed out, 
they each earnestly inquired — " Lord, is it I ?" As they sat thus 
looking in the most painful doubt around their lately cheerful cir- 
cle, the disciple who held the place of honor and affection at the 
table, at the request of Peter, whose position gave him less advan- 
tage for familiar and private conversation, — plainly asked of Jesus 
— " Who is it, Lord V Jesus to make his reply as deliberate and 
impressive as possible, said — " It is he to whom I shall give a sop 
when I have dipped it." The design of all this circumlocution in 
pointing out the criminal, was, to mark the enormity of the offense. 
" He that eateth bread with me, hath lifted up bis heel against me." 
It was his familiar friend, his chosen companion, enjoying with 
him at that moment the most intimate social pleasures of the en- 
tertainment, and occupying one of the places nearest to him, at 
the board. As he promised, after dipping the sop, he gave it to 
Judas Iscariot, who, receiving it, was moved to no change in his 
dark purpose ; but with a new Satanic spirit, resolved immediately 
to execute his plan, in spite of this open exposure, which, he might 
think, was meant to shame him from his baseness. Jesus, with 
an eye still fixed on his most secret inward movements, said to 



458 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

him — M What thou doest, do quickly." Judas, utterly lost to re- 
pentance and to shame, coolly obeyed the direction, as if it had 
been an ordinary command, in the way of his official duty, and 
went out at the words of Jesus. All this, however, was perfectly 
without meaning, to the wondering disciples, who, not yet reco- 
vered from their surprise at the very extraordinary announcement 
which they had just heard of the expected treachery, could not 
suppose that this quiet movement could have any thing to do with 
the occurrence which preceded it ; but concluded that Judas was 
going about the business necessary for the preparation of the next 
day's festal entertainment, — or that he was following the directions 
of Jesus about the charity to be administered to the poor out of 
the funds in his keeping, in accordance with the commendable 
Hebrew usage of remembering the poor on great occasions of en- 
joyment, — a custom to which, perhaps, the previous words of Judas, 
when he rebuked the waste of the ointment by Mary, had some 
especial reference, since at that particular time, money was actu- 
ally needed for bestowment of alms to the poor. Judas, after 
leaving the place where the declaration of Jesus had made him 
an object of such suspicion and dislike, went, under the influence 
of that evil spirit, to whose direction he was now abandoned, di- 
rectly to the chief priests, (who were anxiously waiting the fulfil- 
ment of his promise,) and made known to them that the time was 
now come. The band of watchmen and" servants, with their 
swords and cudgels, were accordingly mustered and put under the 
guidance of Judas, who, well knowing the place to which Jesus 
would of course go from the feast, conducted his band of low fol- 
lowers across the brook Kedron, to the garden of Gethsemane. 
On the way he arranged with them the sign by which they should 
recognize, in spite of the darkness and confusion, the person whose 
capture was the grand object of this expedition. " The man 
whom I shall kiss is he : seize him." Entering the garden, at 
length, he led them straight to the spot which his intimate fami- 
liarity with Jesus enabled him to know, as his favorite retreat. 
Going up to him with the air of friendly confidence, he saluted 
him, as if rejoiced to find him, even after this brief absence, — an- 
other instance of the very close intimacy which had existed be- 
tween the traitor and the betrayed. Jesus submitted to this hollow 
show, without any attempt to repulse the movement which marked 
him for destruction, only saying, in mild but expressive reproach 
— " Judas ! Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss ?" With- 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 459 

out more delay he announced himself in plain terms to those who 
came to seize him ; thus showing how little need there was of art- 
ful contrivance in taking one who did not seek to escape. " If ye 
seek Jesus of Nazareth, I am he." The simple majesty with which 
these words were uttered, was such as to overawe even the low 
officials j and it was not till he himself had again distinctly re- 
minded them of their object, that they could execute their errand. 
So vain was the arrangement of signals, which had been studi- 
ously made by the careful traitor. 

No further mention is made of Iscariot after the scene of his 
treachery, until the next morning, when Jesus had been condemned 
by the high court of the Sanhedrim, and dragged away to undergo 
punishment from the secular power. The sun of another day had 
risen on his crime ; and after a very brief interval, he now had 
time for cool meditation on the nature and consequences of his 
act. Spite and avarice had both now received their full grati- 
fication. The thirty pieces of silver were his, arid the Master 
whose instructions he had hated for their purity and spirituality, 
because they had made known to him the vileness of his own 
character and motives, was now in the hands of those who were 
impelled, by the darkest passions, to secure his destruction. But 
after all, now came the thought and inquiry — " what had the pure 
and holy Jesus done, to deserve this reward at his hands ?" He 
had called him from the sordid pursuits of a common life, to the 
high task of aiding in the regeneration of Israel. He had taught 
him, labored with him, prayed for him, trusted him as a near and 
worthy friend, making him the steward of all the earthly posses- 
sions of his apostolic family, and the organ of his ministrations of 
charity to the poor. All this he had done without the prospect of 
a reward, surely. And why ? To make him an instrument, not 
of the base purposes of a low ambition ; — not to acquire by this 
means the sordid and bloody honors of a conqueror, — but to effect 
the moral and spiritual emancipation of a people, suffering far less 
under the evils of a foreign sway, than under the debasing do- 
minion of folly and sin. And was this an occasion to arm against 
him the darker feelings of his trusted and loved companions ? — to 
turn the instruments of his mercy into weapons of death ? Ought 
the mere disappointment of a worldly-minded spirit, that was ever 
clinging to the love of material things, and that would not learn 
the solemn truth of the spiritual character of the Messiah's reign, 
now to cause it to vent its regrets at its own errors, in a traitorous 

60 



460 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

attack upon the life of him who had called it to a purpose whose 
glories and rewards it could not appreciate ? These and other 
mournful thoughts would naturally rise to the repentant traitor's 
mind, in the awful revulsion of feeling which that morning brought 
with it. But repentance is not atonement ; nor can any change 
of feeling in the mind of the sinner, after the perpetration of the 
sinful act, avail any thing for the removal or expiation of the evil 
consequences of it. So vain and unprofitable, both to the injur er 
and the injured, are the tears of remorse ! And herein lay the dif- 
ference between the repentance of Judas and of Peter. The sin 
of Peter affected no one but himself, and was criminal only as the 
manifestation of a base, selfish spirit of deceit, that fell from truth 
through a vain-glorious confidence, — and the effusion of his gush- 
ing tears might prove the means of washing away the pollution of 
such an offense from his soul. But the sin of Judas had wrought 
a work of crime whose evil could not be affected by any tardy 
change of feeling in him. Peter's repentance came too late, in- 
deed, to exonerate him from guilt ; because all repentance is too 
late for such a purpose, when it comes after the commission of the 
sin. The repentance of an evil purpose, coming in time to pre- 
vent the execution of the act, is indeed available for good ; but 
both Peter and Judas came to the sense of the heinousness of sin, 
only after its commission. Peter, however, had no evil to repair 
for others, — while Judas saw the bloody sequel of his guilt, coming 
with most irrevocable certainty upon the blameless One whom he 
had betrayed. Overwhelmed with vain regrets, he took the now 
hateful, though once-desired price of his villainy, and seeking the 
presence of his purchasers, held out to them the money, with the 
useless confession of the guilt, which was too accordant with their 
schemes and hopes, for them to think of redeeming him from its 
consequences. The words of his confession were — " I have sin- 
ned, in betraying innocent blood." This late protestation was re- 
ceived by the proud priests, with as much regard as might have 
been expected from exulting tyranny, when in the enjoyment of 
the grand object of its efforts. With a cold sneer, they replied — 
" What is that to us ? See thou to that !" Maddened with the 
immovable and remorseless determination of the haughty con- 
demners of the Just, he flung down the price of his infamy and 
wo, upon the floor of the temple, and rushed out of their presence, 
to seal his crimes and misery by the act that put him for ever be- 
yond the power of redemption. Seeking a place removed from 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 461 

the observation of men, he hurried out of the city, and contriving 
the fatal means of death for himself, before the bloody doom of 
him whom he betrayed had been fulfilled, the wretched man saved 
his eyes the renewed horrors of the sight of the crucifixion, by 
closing them in the sleep which earthly sights cannot disturb. But 
even in the mode of his death, new circumstances of horror oc- 
curred. Swinging himself into the air, by falling from a highth, 
as the cord tightened around his neck, checking his descent, the 
weight of his body produced the rupture of his abdomen, and his 
bowels bursting through, made him, as he swung stiffening and 
convulsed in the agonies of this doubly horrid death, a disgusting 
and appalling spectacle, — a monument of the vengeance of God 
on the traitor, and a shocking witness of his own remorse and 
self-condemnation. 

A very striking difference is noticeable between the account given by Matthew of 
the death o Judas, and that given by Luke in the speech of Peter, Acts i. 18, 19. 
The various modes of reconciling these difficulties are found in the ordinary com- 
mentaries. In respect to a single expression in Acts i. 18, there is an ingenious con- 
jecture offered by Granville Penn, in a very interesting and learned article in the 
first volume of the transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, which may very 
properly be mentioned here, on account of its originality and plausibility, and because 
it is found only in an expensive work, hardly ever seen in this country. Mr. Perm's 
view is, that " the word eXa^^o-e, (elakese,) in Acts i. 18, is only an inflexion of the 
Latin verb, lagueo, (to halter or strangle,) rendered insititious in the Hellenistic 
Greek, under the form Aa/«W He enters into a very elaborate argument, which 
cannot be given here, but an extract may be transcribed, in order to enable the learn- 
ed to apprehend the nature and force of his views. (Trans. R. S. Lit. Vol. I. Part 2, 
pp. 51, 52.) 

" Those who have been in the southern countries of Europe know, that the opera- 
tion in question, as exercised on a criminal, is performed with a great length of cord, 
with which the criminal is precipitated from a high beam, and is thus violently laque- 
ated, or snared in a noose, mid-way— medius or in medio ; piaos, and medius, referring 
to place as well as to person ; as, picas vp&v lamKtv. (John i. 26.) ' Considit scopulo 
medius ' (Virg. G. iv. 436.) ' medius prorumpit in hostes.' (Aen. x. 379.) 

" Erasmus distinctly perceived this sense in the words irprtvfis yevopepog, although he 
did not discern it in the word eXd^o-e, which confirms it : 'irpnvtii Graecis dicitur, qui 
vullu est in terram dejecto : expressit autem gestum et habitum laqueo praefocati; 
alioquin, ex hoc sane loco non poterat intelligi, quod Judas suspenderit se.' (in loc.) 
And so Augustine also had understood those words, as he shows in his Recit. in Act. 
Apostol. 1. i. col. 474 — ' et collem sibi alligavit, et dejectus in faciem,' &c. Hence 
one MS., cited by Sabatier, for nprivtis yevopsvos, reads arroKpcpapevog ; and Jerom, in his 
new vulgate, has substituted suspensus for the pronus factus of the old Latin version, 
which our old English version of 1542 accordingly renders, and when he was hanged. 

" That which follows, and which evidently determined the vulgar interpretation of 
t\dKTi<T£ — t&yvvdT) Travel To. air\dyyva airov, all his bowels gushed out — states a natural and 
probable effect produced by the sudden interruption in the fall and violent capture 
in the noose, in a frame of great corpulency and distension, such as Christian anti- 
quity has recorded that of the traitor to have been ; so that a term to express rupture 
would have been altogether unnecessary, and it is therefore equally unnecessary to 
seek for it in the verb ad/c^s. Had the historian intended to express disruption, we 
may justly presume that he would have said, as he had already said in his gospel, v. 
6, Sieppfjyuvro, or xxiii. 45, iax^Qn pcaos : it is difficult to conceive, that he would here 
have traveled into the language of ancient Greek poetry for a word to express a com- 
mon idea, when he had common terms at hand and in practice ; but he used the 
Roman laqueo, Xaxew, to mark the infamy of the death, 



462 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

(" Tlpriffdeis em tooovtov rrjv aapKa, cjote /xi] SvvaaOat tiieXBtiv. Papias, ap. Roulh Reliq. 

Sacr. torn. I. p. 9, and Oecumenius, thus rendered by Zegers, Critici Sacri, Act i. 18, 
in tantum enim corpore inflatus est ut progredi non posset. The tale transmitted by 
those writers of the first and tenth centuries, that Judas was crushed to death by a 
chariot proceeding rapidly, from which his unwieldiness rendered him unable to es- 
cape, merits no further attention, after the authenticated descriptions of the traitor's 
death, which we have here investigated, than to suggest a possibility that the place 
where the suicide was committed might have overhung a public way, and that the 
body falling by its weight might have been traversed, after death, by a passing 
chariot; — from whence might have arisen the tales transmitted successively by those 
writers ; the first of whom, being an inhabitant of Asia Minor, and therefore far re- 
moved from the theatre of Jerusalem, and being also (as Eusebius witnesses, iii. 39) 
a man of a very weak mind — acpoipa jiiKpos tov vow — was liable to be deceived by false 
accounts.) 

" The words of St. Peter, in the Hellenistic version of St. Luke, will therefore im- 
port, praeceps in orafusus, laqueavit (i. e. implicuit se laqueo) medius ; (i. e. in medio, 
inter trabem et terram ;) et effusa sunt omnia viscera ejus — throwing himself headlong, 
he caught mid-way in the noose, and all his bowels gushed out. And thus the two re- 
porters of the suicide, from whose respective relations charges of disagreement, and 
even of contradiction, have been drawn in consequence of mistaking an insititious 
Latin word for a genuine Greek word of corresponding elements, are found, by tracing 
that insititious word to its true origin, to report identically the same fact ; the one by 
a single term, the other by a periphrasis." 

Such was the end of the twelfth of Jesus Christ's chosen ones. 
To such an end was the familiar friend, the trusted steward, the 
social companion of the Savior, brought by the impulse of some 
not very unnatural feelings, excited by occasion, into extraordi- 
nary action. The universal and intense horror which the relation 
of his crime now invariably awakens, is by no means favorable 
to a just and fair appreciation of his sin and its motives, nor to 
such an honest consideration of his course from rectitude to guilt, 
as is most desirable for the application of the whole story to the 
moral improvement of its readers. Originally not an infamous 
man, he was numbered among the twelve as a person of respecta- 
ble character, and long held among his fellow-disciples a respon- 
sible station, which is itself a testimony of his unblemished repu- 
tation. He was sent forth with them, as one of the heralds of 
salvation to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He shared with 
them the counsels, the instructions, and the prayers of Jesus. If 
he was stupid in apprehending, and unspiritual in conceiving the 
truths of the gospel, so were they. If he was an unbeliever in 
the resurrection of Jesus, so were they ; and had he survived till 
the accomplishment of that prophecy, he could not have been 
slower in receiving the evidence of the event, than they. As it 
was, he died in his unbelief; while they lived to feel the glorious 
removal of all their doubts, the purification of all their gross con- 
ceptions, and the effusion of that Spirit of Truth, through which, 
by the grace of God alone, they afterwards were what they were. 
Without a merit in faith, beyond Judas, they maintained their 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 



463 



dim and doubtful adherence to the truth, only by their nearer ap- 
proximation to moral perfection ; and by their nobler freedom 
from the pollution of sordid and spiteful feeling. Through passion 
alone he fell, a victim, not to a want of faith merely, — for therein, 
the rest could hardly claim a superiority, — but to the radical defi- 
ciency of true love for Jesus, of that " charity which never fail- 
eth," but " endureth to the end." It was their simple, devoted 
affection, which, through all their ignorance, their grossness of 
conception, and their faithlessness in his word, made them still 
cling to his name and his grave, till the full revelations of his re- 
surrection and ascension had displaced their doubts by the most 
glorious certainties, and given their faith an eternal assurance. 
The great cause of the awful ruin of Judas Iscariot, then, was the 
fact, that he did not love Jesus. Herein was his grand distinc- 
tion from all the rest ; for though their regard was mingled with 
so much that was base, there was plainly, in all of them, a solid 
foundation of true, deep affection. The most ambitious and skep- 
tical of them, gave the most unquestionable proofs of this. Peter, 
John, both the Jameses, and others, are instances of the mode in 
which these seemingly opposite feelings were combined. But Ju- 
das was without this great refining and elevating principle, which 
so redeemed the most sordid feelings of his fellows. It was not 
merely for the love of money that he was led into this horrid 
crime. The love of four dollars and eighty cents ! Who can 
believe that this was the sole motive ? It was rather that his sor- 
didness and selfishness, and his ambition, if he had any, lacked 
this single, purifying emotion, which redeemed their characters. 
Thus, for the lack of the love of Jesus alone, Judas fell from his 
high estate to an infamy as immortal as their fame. Wherever, 
through all ages, the high, heroic energy of Peter, the ready faith 
of Andrew, the martyr-fire of James Boanerges, the soul-absorbing 
love of John, the willing obedience of Philip, the guileless purity 
of Nathanael, the recorded truth of Matthew, the slow but deep 
devotion of Thomas, the blameless righteousness of James the 
Just, the appellative zeal of Simon, and the earnest, warning elo- 
quence of Jude, are all commemorated in honor and bright re- 
nown, — the murderous, sordid spite of Iscariot, will insure him 
an equally lasting proverbial shame. Truly, " the sin of judas 



MATTHIAS. 



The events which concern this person's connexion with the 
apostolic company, are briefly these. Soon after the ascension of 
Jesus, the eleven disciples being assembled in their " upper room," 
with a large company of believers, making in all, together, a meet- 
ing of one hundred and twenty, Peter arose and presented to their 
consideration, the propriety and importance of filling, in the apos- 
tolic college, the vacancy caused by the sad defection of Judas Is- 
cariot. Beginning with what seems to be an apt allusion to the 
words of David concerning Ahithophel, — (a quotation very natu- 
rally suggested by the striking similarity between the fate of that 
ancient traitor, and that of the base Iscariot,) he referred to the pe- 
culiarly horrid circumstances of the death of this revolted apostle, 
and also applied to these occurrences the words of the same Psalm- 
ist concerning those upon whom he invoked the wrath of God, in 
words which might with remarkable emphasis be made descrip- 
tive of the ruin of Judas. " Let his habitation be desolate," and 
"let another take his office." Applying this last quotation more 
particularly to the exigency of their circumstances, he pronounced 
it to be in accordance with the will of God that they should im- 
mediately proceed to select a person to " take the office" of Judas. 
He declared it an essential requisite for this office, moreover, that 
the person should be one of those who, though not numbered with 
the select twelve, had been among the intimate companions of 
Jesus, and had enjoyed the honors and privileges of a familiar dis- 
cipleship, so that they could always testify of his great miracles 
and divine instructions, from their own personal knowledge as eye- 
witnesses of his actions, from the beginning of his divine career 
at his baptism by John, to the time of his ascension. 

Agreeably to this counsel of the apostolic chief, the whole com- 
pany of the disciples selected two persons from those who had 
been witnesses of the great actions of Christ, and nominated them 
to the apostles, as equally well qualified for the vacant office. To 
decide the question with perfect impartiality, it was resolved, in 



MATTHIAS. 465 

conformity with the common ancient practice in such cases, to 
leave the point between these two candidates to be settled by lot; 
and to give this mode of decision a solemnity proportioned to the 
importance of the occasion, they first invoked, in prayer, the aid 
of God in the appointment of a person best qualified for his ser- 
vice. They then drew the lots of the two candidates, and Mat- 
thias being thus selected, was thenceforth enrolled with the eleven 
apostles. 

Of his previous history nothing whatever is known, except that, 
according to what is implied in the address of Peter, he must have 
been, from the beginning of Christ's career to his ascension, one 
of his constant attendents and hearers. Some have conjectured 
that he was one of the seventy, sent forth by Jesus as apostles, 
in the same manner as the twelve had gone ; and there is nothing 
unreasonable in the supposition ; but still it is a conjecture merely, 
without any fact to support it. The New Testament is perfectly 
silent with respect to both his previous and his subsequent life, 
and not a fact can be recorded respecting him. Yet the produc- 
tive imaginations of the martyrologists of the Roman and Greek 
churches, have carried him through a protracted series of adven- 
tures, during his alleged preaching of the gospel, first in Judea, 
and then in Ethiopia. They also pretend that he was martyred, 
though as to the precise mode there is some difference in the 
stories, — some relating that he was crucified, and others, that he 
was first stoned and then despatched by a blow on the head with 
an axe. But all these are condemned by the discreet writers even 
of the Romish church, and the whole life of Matthias must be in- 
cluded among those many mysteries which can never be in any 
way brought to light by the most devoted and untiring researches of 
the apostolic historian ; and this dim and unsatisfactory trace of 
his life may well conclude the first grand division of a work, in 
which the reader will expect to find so much curious detail of 
matters commonly unknown, but which no research nor learning 
can furnish^ for the prevention of his disappointment. 



466 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

The Galilean apostles form a perfectly well marked and 
distinct class of laborers in the original field of Christian evan- 
gelization, and are characterized by several peculiarities, recogniza- 
ble in none but them. 

I. They were the original apostles of Jesus Christ, appointed 
directly by him, selected after a probationary acquaintance and in- 
struction, from the common mass of his disciples, for the especial 
honors of his minute and careful personal instruction, and of lead- 
ing in the work of proclaiming and extending his gospel. 

II. They were all the countrymen of jesus in a peculiar sense, 
— citizens of the same province, — brought up under a common 
local influence, — familiar with the same people, and the same 
scenery, — characterized by the quick, fervid, violent, and energetic 
spirit of the Galileans, and sharing, in the estimation of the refined 
inhabitants of the Jewish capital, the opprobrium which was 
thrown upon the northern province, as a mere border section, re- 
moved from the great centre of Hebrew learning and religion, and 
cut oif from the purer Jews, on one side, by the outcast Samari- 
tans, while, on the north and east, their proximity to the heathen 
of Syria and Arabia, brought them into such close and frequent 
intercourse with foreigners, as to justify suspicions of some taint 
in their orthodoxy. 

The region to which by modern geographers the name Palestine is given, was in the 
time of the apostles commonly divided into three grand sections, — Jddea, in the south, 
Galilee, in the north, and Samaria in the middle, between the other two. Galilee, 
the northern section, was bounded on the south by Samaria and Peraea, east by the 
great northern range of Hermon, where it stretches along the borders of Traehonitis, 
Iturea, and Auranitis; — for, as has already been shown, the name Galilee was ex- 
tended to all the northern section of Palestine, both east and west of Jordan and the 
lake. Coele-Syria lay next to it on the north, and the shore of the Mediterranean 
constituted its western boundary. The subdivisions of this territory were various. 
The sea-coast occupied by Sidcn, Tyre, and other ancient seats of commerce, was 
from time immemorial known as Phoenicia. On the conquest of Canaan by the Is- 
raelites. Galilee was apportioned among the tribes of Asher, Naphtali, Zebulon, Issa- 
char, and Manasseh. Under the Romans, the name Galilee was generally restricted 
to the region west of Jordan and the lake, though the Jews continued to apply the 
term to the whole section. The portion beyond the lake and river was called Basan, 
or Batanea, and the country immediately bordering on the western shore of the lake, 
was called Gauianitis, from Golan, an ancient city in that region. 

The name Galilee (Latin, Galilaea— Greek, FaXiXaia, — Hebrew, vh^i) is derived 
from the Hebrew word V^; (galil,) " a circuit, a border, district, or country," and is 
appropriate to this region, as lying on the northern border or frontier of Palestine, 
separating southern Palestine from the Gentile people of Syria, who, intermingling 
with the northern Israelites, as well as the Phoenicians, always formed a large por- 
tion of the population of this border country. The name " Galilee of the Gentiles" 
or " the nations" has a special reference to these peculiarities of location and popu- 
lation, and this view is confirmed by the testimonies of other ancient writers, as 
Strabo and Josephus, who characterize it as filled up in a great measure by a motley 
collection of the various nations who bordered upon Palestine. From the earliest 



THE GALILEAN APOSTLES. 467 

periods, its position gave it this same general familiarity of a mixed population, made 
up from various nations. (Thence, perhaps, the term " king of nations," applied to 
the monarch of this territory. Gen. xiv. 1 ; Joshua xii. 23.) (See Poole's Synopsis 
on Matt. iv. 15.) 

III. Their field of labor was peculiar. Palestine, Arabia, 
Babylon, and the far east, were the portions of the world to which 
the original apostles confined their labors. There they all (with 
but one exception) preached, wrote, and died. Yet, — most gloomy 
and melancholy thought ! — all those noble and highly favored 
scenes of original Christian evangelization, a thousand years 
ago lost the last traces of apostolic labor, and under the marring 
influence of war, revolution, and ignorance, sunk into a state even 
lower than that in which the first gospel-light found them ! The 
Muhammedan faith, at this day, is the most spiritual and pure re- 
ligion known over all the hallowed scenes of original apostolic 
labor, and those who are there known by the name of .Christian, 
bear it only to pollute it by ignorance, idolatry, and superstition, 
which would disgrace a heathen. 

Yet mark the noble moral of this great passage in the history of 
man ! Unproductive in their ultimate consequences, as the mighty 
labors of those lives might have seemed to any in that age, in a 
prospective view of the history of those lands, — the distant and 
wide results of that original evangelization now present a scene 
most startlingly grand to the retrospective glance. The light of the 
gospel has indeed forsaken the lands hallowed by its first dawn. 
Syria, Palestine, Arabia, and Persia, all slumber in a night that 
shows no glimmering of the day which once shone so brightly 
over them ; but the sun which ages ago went down on them, rose 
on the lands of the west, whose nations, turning their eyes ever to 
the east as the source of religious light, caught the early effulgence 
of the gospel truth, which, though at times overclouded, has since 
brightened in a steady career of glory, " like the path of the just, 
shining as the morning light, more and more unto the perfect day/' 
And if, as the apostles from the verge of the grave turned their 
eyes upon the scenes of their devoted labors, the voice of prophecy 
had foretold to them the gloomy night of ignorance, idolatry, and 
barbarism, so soon to fall and so long to rest on that holy land, 
where could the inspired eye of faith have found a redeeming con- 
solation ? The hope that cheered them in all the doubt and trial 
and anguish of their laborious lives, might for a moment have 
seemed groundless ; but the consolations of their Lord's last pro- 
mises would still have upheld the doubting, sinking spirit, even 

61 



468 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

against the horrors of such a prospect. Nor would that faithful 
hope have been deceptive. Beyond the gloom of ages and of na- 
tions, that lost light was cherished and diffused ; its beams warmed 
the cold hearts of the northern and western barbarians into a glo- 
rious humanity ; — they illuminated continents, they regenerated 
nations, they lightened on the overthrow of heathen empires, they 
enkindled and sustained a civilization that more outshone the most 
glorious achievments of antiquity, than could a poet's dream the 
scenes of reality. But their most splendid result is yet to come. 
Those distant lands shall restore that adopted and cherished and 
extended truth to its original seat. That light shall return in the 
cycle of ages to the land where it rose thousands of years ago, to 
bless, not only that land, nor that age merely, but the world through 
all time. Even now that recurring day sends its morning twilight 
once more over the east. From a land which the apostles never 
knew, of which the prophets never dreamed, the gospel now goes 
back to bless the holy spot of its birth, with a new day. The spirit 
of the apostles, the energy of the martyrs, and the fire of the pro- 
phets, have been in our own times re-embodied in the champions 
of American religious enterprise ; and the green graves of New 
England's missionary sons, while they form her most noble claim 
to the world's remembrance, and re-hallow the land of the holy, 
are a cheering monumental token of the surety of God's word, and 
of his faithfulness to the promise of his Son, most gloriously re- 
deeming the pledge of constant support and ultimate triumph made 
to his trusting and devoted apostles. 



II. THE HELLENIST APOSTLES 



SAUL, AFTERWARDS NAMED PAUL. 



HIS COUNTRY. 



On the farthest northeastern part of the Mediterranean sea, 
where its waters are bounded by the great angle made by the 
meeting of the Syrian coast with the Asian, there is a peculiarity 
in the course of the mountain ranges, which deserves notice in a 
view of the countries of that region, modifying as it does all their 
most prominent characteristics. The great chain of Taurus, 
which can be traced far eastward in the branching ranges of 
Singara, Masius, and Niphates, running connectedly also into the 
distant peaks of mighty Ararat, here sends off a spur to the shore 
of the Mediterranean, which, under the name of Mount Amanus, 
meets its waters, just at their great northeastern angle in the an- 
cient gulf of Issus, now called the gulf of Scanderoon. Besides 
this connexion with the mountain chains of Mesopotamia and Ar- 
menia on the northeast, from the south the great Syrian Lebanon, 
running very nearly parallel with the eastern shore of the Mediter- 
ranean, at the Issic angle, joins this common centre of convergence, 
so insensibly losing its individual character in the Asian ridge, that 
by many writers, Mount Amanus itself is considered only a regular 
continuation of Lebanon. These, however, are as distinct as any 
of the chains here uniting, and the true Libanic mountains cease 
just at this grand natural division of Syria from the northern coast 
of the Mediterranean. A characteristic of the Syrian mountains 
is nevertheless prominent in the northern chain. They all take 
a general course parallel with the coast, and very near it, occa- 
sionally sending out lateral ridges, which mark the projections of 
the shore with high promontories. Of these, however, there are 
much fewer on the southern coast of Asia Minor ; and the western 
ridge of Taurus, after parting from the grand angle of convergence, 
runs exactly parallel to the margin of the sea, in most parts about 



470 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

seven miles distant. The country thus fenced off by Taurus, 
along the southern coast of Asia Minor, is very distinctly charac- 
terized by these circumstances connected with its orography, and 
is in a very peculiar manner bounded and inclosed from the rest 
of the continent, by these natural features. The great mountain 
barrier of Taurus, as above described, stretches along the north, 
forming a mighty wall, which is at each end met at right angles 
by a lateral ridge, of which the eastern is Amanus, descending 
within a few rods of the water, while the western is the true 
termination of Taurus in that direction, — the mountains here 
making a grand curve from west to south, and stretching out into 
the sea, in a bold promontory, which definitely marks the farthest 
western limit of the long, narrow section, thus remarkably inclosed. 
This simple natural division, in the apostolic age, contained two 
principal artificial sub-divisions. On the west was the province 
of Pamphylia, occupying about one fourth of the coast ; — and on 
the east, the rest of the territory constituted the province of Cilicia, 
far-famed as the land of the birth of that great apostle of the Gen- 
tiles, whose life is the theme of these pages. 

Cilicia, — opening on the west into Pamphylia, — is elsewhere 
inclosed in mountain barriers, unpenetrable and impassable, except 
in three points, which are the only places in which it is accessible 
by land, though widely exposed, on the sea, by its long open coast. 
Of these adits, the most important, and the one through which the 
vast proportion of its commercial intercourse with the world, by 
land, has always been carried on, is the eastern, which is just at 
the oft-mentioned great angle of the Mediterranean, where the 
mountains descend almost to the waters of the gulf of Issus. 
Mount Amanus, coming from the northeast, and stretching along 
the eastern boundary of Cilicia, an impassable barrier here ad- 
vances to the shore ; but just before its base reaches the water, it 
abruptly terminates, leaving between the high rocks and the sea a 
narrow space, which is capable of being completely commanded 
and defended from the mountains which thus guard it ; and form- 
ing the only land passage out of Cilicia to the eastern coast of the 
Mediterranean, it was thence anciently called " the gates of Sy- 
ria." Through these " gates" has always passed all the traveling 
by land between Asia Minor and Palestine ; and it is therefore an 
important point in the most celebrated route in apostolic history. 
The other main opening in the mountain walls of this region, is 
the passage through the Taurus, made by the course of the Sams, 



SAUL. 471 

the largest river of the province, which breaks through the northern 
ridge, in a defile that is called " the gates op Cilicia." 

The boundaries of Cilicia are then, — on the north, mountainous 
Cappadocia, perfectly cut off by the impenetrable chain of Taurus, 
except the narrow pass through " the gates of Cilicia f. — on the 
east,, equally well guarded by Mount Amanus, Northern Syria, the 
only land passages being through the famed " Syrian gates," and 
another defile north of the coast, toward the Euphrates ; — on the 
south, stretches the long margin of the sea, which in the western 
two thirds of the coast takes the name of " the Cilician strait," be- 
cause it here flows between the main land and the great island of 
Cyprus, which lies off the shore, always in sight, being less than 
thirty miles distant, the eastern third of the coast being bounded 
by the waters of the gulf of Issus ; — and on the west Cilicia ends 
in the rough highlands of Pamphylia. The territory itself is dis- 
tinguished by natural features, into two divisions, — " Rocky Cilicia" 
and " Level Cilicia," — the former occupying the western third, and 
the latter the eastern part,— each district being abundantly well 
described by the term applied to it. Within the latter lay the 
opening scenes of the apostle's life. 

Thus peculiarly guarded, and shut off from the world, it might 
be expected that this remarkable region would nourish, on the narr 
row plains of its fertile shores, and the vast rough mountains of 
its gigantic barriers, a race strongly marked in mental, as in phy- 
sical characteristics. In all parts of the world, the philosophical 
observer may notice a relation borne by man to the soil on which 
he lives, and to the air which he breathes, — hardly less striking 
than the dependence of the inferior orders of created things, on 
the material objects which surround them. Man is an animal, 
and his natural history displays as many curious correspondences 
between his varying peculiarities and the locality which he in- 
habits, as can be observed between the physical constitution of 
inferior creatures, and the similar circumstances which affect 
them. The inhabitants of a wild, broken region, which rises into 
mighty inland mountains, or sends its cliffs and valleys into a vast 
sea, are, in all ages and climes, characterized by a peculiar energy 
and quickness of mind, which often marks them in history as the 
prominent actors in events of the highest importance to mankind 
in all the world. Even the dwellers of the cities of such regions, 
share in that peculiar vivacity of their countrymen, which is espe- 
pecially imbibed in the air of the mountains ; and carry through 



472 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

all the world, till new local influences have again subjected them, 
the original characteristics of the land of their birth. The restless 
activity and dauntless spirit of Saul, present a striking instance of 
this relation of scenery to character. The ever-rolling waters of 
the tideless sea on one side presenting a boundless view, and on 
the other the blue mountains rearing a mighty barrier to the 
vision, — the thousand streams thence rolling to the former, — the 
white sands of the long plains, gemmed with the green of shaded 
fountains, as well as the active movements of a busy population, 
all living under these same inspiring influences, — would each have 
their effect on the soul of the young Cilician, as he grew up in the 
midst of these modifying circumstances. 

Along these shores, from the earliest period of Hellenic coloni- 
zation, Grecian enterprise had planted its busy centres of civiliza- 
tion. On each favorable site, where agriculture or commerce could 
thrive, cities grew up in the midst of prosperous colonies, in which 
wealth and power, in their rapid advance, brought in the lights of 
science, art, literature, and all the refinements and elegances which 
Grecian colonization made the invariable accompaniments of its 
march,-— adorning its solid triumphs with the graceful polish of all 
that could exalt the enjoyment of prosperity. Issus, Mopsuestia, 
Airhialus, Selinus, and others, were among the early seats of Gre- 
cian refinement ; and the more modern efforts of the Syro-Macedo- 
nian sway, had blessed Cilicia with the fruits of royal munificence, 
in. such cities as Cragic Antioch, Seleucia the Rocky, and Arsinoe ; 
and in still later times, the ever-active and wide-spreading benefi- 
cence of Roman dominion, had still farther multiplied the peaceful 
triumphs and trophies of civilization, by here raising or renewing 
cities, of which Baiae, Germanicia, and Pompeiopolis, are only a 
specimen. But of all these monuments of ancient or later refine- 
ment, there was none of higher antiquity or fame than Tarsus, the 
city where was born this illustrious apostle, whose life was so 
greatly instrumental in the triumphs of Christianity. 

Tarsus stands on the banks of the classic Cydnus, — a narrow 
stream running a brief course from the barrier of Taurus, directly 
southward to the sea, which it enters about three miles south of 
the city, just at the extreme northern point of a wide indentation 
of the coast of Cilicia. The river's mouth forms a spacious and 
convenient harbor, to which the light vessels of ancient commerce 
all easily found safe and ready access, though most of the floating 
piles in which the productions of the world are now transported, 



saul. 473 

might find such a harbor altogether inaccessible to their heavier 
burden. 

Ammianus Marcellinus. the elegant historian of the decline of the Roman empire, 
speaks in high descriptive' terms, both of the province and the city, which makes it 
eminent in Christian history. In narrating important events here performed during 
the times whose history he records, he alludes to the character of the region in a pre- 
liminary description. " After surmounting the peaks of Taurus, which, towards the 
east, rise into higher elevation, Cilicia spreads out before the observer, in far stretch- 
ing areas,— a land rich in all good things. To its right (that is, the west, as the ob- 
server looks south from the summits of Taurus) is joined Isauria, — in equal degree 
verdant with palms and many fruits, and intersected by the navigable river Calycad- 
nus. This, besides many towns, has two cities, — Seleucia, the work of Seleucus 
Nicator of Syria, and Claudiopolis, a colony founded by Claudius Caesar. Isauria, 
how r ever, once exceedingly powerful, has formerly been desolated for a destructive 
rebellion, and therefore shows but very few traces of its ancient splendor. But Cilicia, 
which rejoices in the river Cydnus, is ennobled by Tarsus, a splendid city, — by Ana- 
zarbus, and by Mopsuestia, the dwelling-place of that Mopsus who accompanied the 
Argonauts. These two provinces (Isauria or " Cilicia the Rocky," and Cilicia proper 
or "level") being formerly connected with hordes of plunderers in a piratical war, 
were subjugated by the proconsul Servilius, and made tributary. And these regions, 
placed, as it were, on a long tongue of land, are separated from the eastern world by 
Mount Amanus." (Ammianus Marcellinus, Hist. Lib. XIV. p. 19, ed. Vales.) 

The native land of Saul was classic ground. Within the limits 
of Cilicia were laid the scenes of some of the most splendid pas- 
sages in early Grecian fable ; and here, too, were acted some of 
the grandest events in authentic history, both Greek and Roman. 
The very city of his birth. Tarsus, is said to have been founded by 
Perseus, the son of Jupiter and Danae, famed for his exploit at 
another place on the shore of this part of the Mediterranean. More 
authentic history, however, refers its earliest foundation to Sardan- 
apalus, king of Assyria, who built Tarsus and Anchialus in Cilicia, 
nine hundred years before Christ. Its origin is by others ascribed 
to Triptolemus, with an Argive colony, who is represented on 
some medals as the founder. These two stories may be made 
consistent with each other, on the supposition that the same place 
was successively the scene of the civilizing influence of each of 
these attributed founders. So, too, may be taken the legend which 
Ammianus Marcellinus records and approves, — that it was founded 
by Sandan, a wealthy and eminent person from Ethiopia, who at 
some early period not specified, is said to have built Tarsus. It 
was, however, at the earliest period that is definitely mentioned, 
subject to the Assyrian empire ; and afterwards fell under the 
dominion of each of the sovranties which succeeded it, passing 
into the hands of the Persian and of Alexander, as each in turn 
assumed the lordship of the eastern world. While under the 
Persian sway, it is commemorated by Xenophon as having been 
honored by the presence of the younger Cyrus, when on his 



474 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

march through Asia to wrest the empire from his brother. On 
this occasion he entered this region through the northern " gates 
of Cilicia," and passed out through the " gates of Syria," a passage 
which is, in connexion with this event, very minutely described 
by the elegant historian of that famous expedition. 

Sardanapalus. — The fact of the foundation both of Tarsus and Anchialus by this 
splendid but unfortunately extravagant monarch, the last of his line, is commemora- 
ted by Arrian, who refers to the high authority of an inscription which records the 
event. 

" Anchialus is said to have been founded by the king of Assyria, Sardanapalus. 
The fortifications, in their magnitude and extent, still, in Arrian's time, bore the cha- 
racter of greatness, which the Assyrians appear singularly to have affected in works 
of the kind. A monument, representing Sardanapalus. was found there, warranted 
by an inscription in Assyrian characters, of course in the old Assyrian language, 
which the Greeks, whether well or ill, interpreted thus : ' Sardanapalus, son of An- 
acyndaraxes, in one day founded Anchialus and Tarsus. Eat, drink, play : all other 
human joys are not worth a fillip.' Supposing this version nearly exact, (for Arrian 
says it was not quite so,) whether the purpose has not been to invite to civil order a 
people disposed to turbulence, rather than to recommend immoderate luxury, may 
perhaps reasonably be questioned. What, indeed, could be the object of a king of 
Assyria in founding such towns in a country so distant from his capital, and so divi- 
ded from it by an immense extent of sandy desert and lofty mountains, and, still more, 
how the inhabitants could be at once in circumstances to abandon themselves to the 
intemperate joys which their prince has been supposed to have recommended, is not 
obvious ; but it may deserve observation, that, in that line of coast, the southern of 
Lesser Asia, ruins of cities, evidently of an age after Alexander, yet barely named in 
history, at this day astonish the adventurous traveler by their magnificence and ele- 
gance." (Mitford's Greece, Vol. IX. pp. 311, 312.) 

Over the same route passed the conquering armies of the great 
Alexander. At Issus, within the boundaries of Cilicia, he met, in 
their mightiest array, the vast hosts of Darius, whom here van- 
quishing, he thus decided the destiny of the world. Before this 
great battle, halting to repose at Tarsus, he almost met his death, 
by imprudently bathing in the classic Cydnus, whose waters were 
famed for their extreme coldness. By a remarkable coincidence, 
the next conqueror of the world, Julius Caesar, also rested at Tar- 
sus for some days before his great triumphs in Asia Minor. Cilicia 
had in the interval, between these two visits, passed from the Mace- 
donian to the Roman dominion, being made a Roman province by 
Pompey, about sixty years before Christ, at the time when all the 
kingdoms of Asia and Syria were subjugated. After this it was 
visited by Cicero, at the time of his triumphs over the cities of 
eastern. Cilicia ; and its classic stream is still farther celebrated in 
immortal verse and prose, as the scene where Marcus Antony met 
Cleopatra for the first time. It was the Cydnus, down which she 
sailed in her splendid galley, to meet the conqueror, who for her 
afterwards lost the empire of the world. During all the civil wars 
which desolated the Roman empire through a long course of years 



saul. 475 

in that age, Tarsus steadily adhered to the house of Caesar, first 
to the great Julius, and afterwards to Augustus. So remarkable 
was its attachment and devotion to the cause of Julius, that when 
the assassin Cassius marched through Asia into Syria to secure 
the dominion of the eastern world, he laid siege to Tarsus, and 
having taken it, laid it waste with the most destructive vengeance 
for its adherence to the fortunes of his murdered lord ; and such 
were its sufferings under these and subsequent calamities in the 
same cause, that when Augustus was at last established in the un- 
divided empire of the world, he felt himself bound in honor and 
gratitude, to bestow on the faithful citizens of Tarsus the most re- 
markable favors. The city, having at the request of its inhabi- 
tants received the new name of J^Ziopolis, as a testimony of their 
devotion to the memory of their murdered patron, was lavishly 
honored with almost every privilege which the imperial Augustus 
could bestow on these most faithful adherents of his family. From 
the terms in which his acts of generosity to them are recorded, it 
has been inferred, — though not therein positively stated, — that he 
conferred on it the rank and title of a Roman colony, or free city, 
which must have given all its inhabitants the exalted privileges of 
Roman citizens. This assertion has been disputed, however, and 
forms one of the most interesting topics in the life of the great 
apostle, involving the inquiry as to the mode in which he obtained 
that inviolable privilege, which, on more than one occasion, 
snatched him from the clutches of tyrannical persecutors. Whether 
he held this privilege in common with all the citizens of Tarsus, 
or inherited it as a peculiar honor of his own family, is a question 
yet to be decided. But whatever may have been the precise ex- 
tent of the municipal favors enjoyed by Tarsus, it is certain that 
it was an object of peculiar favor to the imperial Caesars during 
a long succession of years, not only before but after the apostle's 
time, being crowned with repeated acts of munificence by Augustus, 
Adrian, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus ; so that through many centu- 
ries it was the most favored city in the eastern division of the 
Roman empire. 

The history of Cilicia since the apostolic age is briefly this: It remained attached 
to the eastern division of the Roman empire, until about A. D. 800, when it first fell 
under the Muhammedan sway, being made part of the dominion of the Califs by 
Haroun Al Rashid. In the thirteenth century, it reverted to a Christian government, 
constituting a province of the Armenian kingdom of Leo. About A. D. 1400, it fell 
under the sway of Bajazet It. Sultan of the Ottoman empire, and is at present in- 
cluded in that empire,— most of it in a single Turkish pashalic, under the name of 
Adana. 

62 



476 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

Roman citizens. — Witsius very fully discusses this point, and his whole view is 
therefore here translated entire. 

" It is remarkable, that though he was of Tarsus, he should say that he was a Ro- 
man citizen, and that, too, by the right of birth: Acts xxii. 28. There has been some 
discussion whether he enjoyed that privilege in common with all the Tarsans, or 
whether it was peculiar to his family. Most interpreters firmly hold the former 
opinion. Beza remarks — " that he calls himself a Roman, not by country, but by 
right of citizenship; since Tarsus had the privileges of a Roman colony." He adds 
— " Mark Antony, the triumvir, presented the Tarsans with the rights of citizens of 
Rome." Others, without number, bear the same testimony. Baronius goes still far- 
ther, — contending that " Tarsus obtained from the Romans, the municipal right," that 
is, the privileges of free-born citizens of Rome ; understanding Paul's expression in 
Acts xxi. 39, to mean that he was a municeps of Tarsus, or a Tarsan with the free- 
dom of the city of Rome. Now the municipal towns, or free cities, had rights supe- 
rior to those of mere colonies; for the free-citizens were not only called Roman citi- 
zens as the colonists were, but also, as Ulpian records, could share in all the honors 
and offices of Rome. Moreover, the colonies had to live under the laws of the Ro- 
mans, while the municipal towns were allowed to act according to their own ancient 
laws, and country usages. To account for the distinction enjoyed by Tarsus, in 
being called a " municipium of Romans," the citizens are said to have merited that 
honor, for having in the civil wars attached themselves first to Julius Caesar, and after- 
wards to Octavius, in whose cause they suffered much. For so attached was this 
city to the side of Caesar, that, as Dion Cassius records, they asked to have their 
name changed from Tarsus to Juliopolis, in memory of Julius, and in token of good 
will to Augustus; and for that reason they were presented with the rights of a colony 
or a municipium, and this general opinion is strengthened by the high testimony of 
Pliny and Appian. On the other hand, Heinsius and Grotius strongly urge that 
these things have been too hastily asserted by the learned ; for scarcely a passage can 
be found in the ancient writers, where Tarsus is called a colony, or even a munici- 
pium. " And how could it be a colony," asks Heinsius, " when writers on Roman 
law acknowledge but two in Cilicia 1 Ulpian {Lib. I. De censibus) says of the Roman 
colonies in Asia Minor — ' there is in Bithynia the colony of Apamea, — in Pontus, 
Sinope, — in Cilicia there are Selinus and Trajanopolis.' But why does he pass over 
Tarsus or Juliopolis, if that had place among them'?" Baronius proves it to have 
been a municipium, only from the Latin version of Acts, where that word is used; 
though the term in the original Greek (jro\irr) S ) means nothing more than the com- 
mon word, " citizen," (as it is rendered in the English version.) Pliny also calls Tar- 
sus not a colony, nor a municipium, but a "free city," — libera urbs. (Book V. chap, 
xxvii.) Appian, in the first book of the civil wars, says that Antony granted to the 
Tarsans freedom, but says nothing of the rights of a municipium, or colony. Where- 
fore Grotius thinks that the only point established is, that some one of the ancestors of 
Paul, in the civil wars between Augustus Caesar, and Brutus and Cassius, and per- 
haps those between this Caesar and Antony, received the grant of the privileges of a 
Roman citizen; whence he concludes that Paul must have been of an opulent family. 
These opinions of Grotius have received the approval of other eminent commenta- 
tors. These notions, however, must be rejected as unsatisfactory; because though 
some writers have but slightly alluded to Tarsus as a free city, yet Dio Chrysostom 
(Tarsic. poster.) has enlarged upon it in a tone of high declamation. " Yours, men 
of Tarsus, was the fortune to be first in this nation, — not only because you dwell in 
the greatest city of Cilicia, and one which was a metropolis from the beginning, — but 
also because the second Caesar was remarkably well-disposed and gracious towards 
you. For, the misfortunes which befell the city in his cause, deservedly secured 
to you his kind regard, and led him to make his benefits to you as conspicuous as the 
calamities brought upon you for his sake. Therefore did Augustus confer on you 
every thing that a man could on friends and companions, with a view to outdo those 
who had shown him so great good will, — your land, laws, honors, the right of the 
river and of the neighboring sea." On which words Heinsius observes, in comment, 
that by land is doubtless meant that he secured -to them their own territory, free and 
undisturbed. By laws are meant such as relate to the liberty usually granted to free 
towns. Honor plainly refers to the right of citizenship, as the most exalted he could 
offer. The point then seems to be established, if this interpretation holds good, and 
it is evidently a rational one. For when he had made up his mind to grant high 
favors to a city, in return for such great merits, why, when it was in his power, 
should Augustus fail to grant it the rights of Roman citizenship, which certainly 



saul. 477 

had been often granted to other cities on much slighter grounds 1 It would be strange, 
indeed, if among the exalted honors which Dio proclaims, that should not have been 
included. This appears to be the drift, not only of Dio's remarks, but also of Paul's, 
who offers no other proof of his being a Roman citizen, than that he was a Tarsan, 
and says nothing of it as a special immunity of his own family, although some such 
explanation would otherwise have been necessary to gain credit to his assertion. 
Whence it is concluded that it would be rash to pretend, contrary to all historical 
testimony, any peculiar merits of the ancestors of Paul, towards the Romans, which 
caused so great an honor to be conferred on a Jewish family." (Witsius, Vita Pauli. 
i. 6, pp. 4—7.) 

But from all these ample and grandiloquent statements of Dio Chrysostom, it by 
no means follows that Tarsus had the privilege of Roman citizenship ; and the con- 
clusion of the learned Witsius seems highly illogical. The very fact, that while Dio 
was panegyrizing Tarsus in these high terms, and recounting all the favors which 
imperial beneficence had showered upon it, he yet did not mention among these mi- 
nutiae, the privilege of citizenship, is quite conclusive against this view; for he 
would not, when thus seeking for all the particulars of its eminence, have omitted 
the greatest honor and advantage which could be conferred on any city by a Roman 
emperor, nor have left it vaguely to be inferred. Besides, there are passages in the 
Acts of the Apostles which seem to be opposed to the view that Tarsus was thus pri- 
vileged. In Acts xxi. 39, Paul is represented as distinctly stating to the tribune, that 
he was " a citizen of Tarsus ;" yet in xxii. 24, 25, it is said that the tribune was about 
proceeding, without scruple, to punish Paul with stripes, and was very much sur- 
prised, indeed, to learn that he was a Roman citizen, and evidently had no idea that 
a citizen of Tarsus was, as a matter of course, endowed with Roman citizenship ; — 
a fact, however, with which a high Roman officer must have been acquainted, for 
there were few cities thus privileged, and Tarsus was a very eminent city in a pro- 
vince adjoining Palestine, and not far from the capital of Judea. And the subsequent 
passages of chap. xxii. represent him as very slow indeed to believe it, even after 
Paul's distinct assertion. 

Hemsen is very clear and satisfactory on this point, and presents the argument in 
a fair light. See his note in his " Apostel Paulus" on pp. 1, 2. He refers also to a 
work not otherwise known here;— John Ortwin Westenberg's "Dissert, de jurisp. 
Paul. Apost." Kuinoel in Act. Apost. xvi. 37, discusses the question of citizenship. 

Nor were the solid honors of this great Asian city, limited to 
the mere favors of imperial patronage. Founded, or early enlarged 
by the colonial enterprise of the most refined people of ancient 
times, Tarsus, from its first beginning, shared in the glories of 
Helleno-Asiatic civilization, under which philosophy, art, taste, 
commerce, and warlike power, attained in these colonies a highth 
before unequaled, while Greece, the mother country, was still far 
back in the march of improvement. In the Asian colonies arose 
the first schools of philosophy, and there is hardly a city on the 
eastern coast of the Aegean, but is consecrated by some glorious 
association with the name of some Father of Grecian science. 
Thales, Anaxagoras, Anaximander, and many others of the earliest 
philosophers, all flourished in these Asian colonies ; and on the 
Mediterranean coast, within Cilicia itself, were the home and 
schools of Aratus and the stoic Chrysippus. The city of Tarsus 
is commemorated by Strabo, as having in very early times attained 
great eminence in philosophy and in all sorts of learning, so that 
" in science and art it surpassed the fame even of Athens and Al- 
exandria ; and the citizens of Tarsus themselves were distinguished 



478 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

for individual excellence in these elevated pursuits. So great was 
the zeal of the men of that place for philosophy, and for the rest 
of the circle of sciences, that they excelled both Athens and Alex- 
andria, and every other place which can be mentioned, where 
there are schools and lectures of philosophers." Not borrowing 
the philosophic glory of their city merely from the numbers of 
strangers who resorted thither to enjoy the advantages of instruc- 
tion there afforded, as is almost universally the case in all the 
great seats of modern learning ; but entering themselves with zeal 
and enjoyment into their schools of science, they made the name 
of Tarsus famous throughout the civilized world, for the cultiva- 
tion of knowledge and taste. Even to this day the stranger 
pauses with admiration among the still splendid ruins of this an- 
cient city, and finds in her arches, columns, and walls, and in her 
chance-buried medals, the solid testimonies of her early glories in 
art, taste, and wealth. Well, then, might the great apostle recur 
with patriotic pride to the glories of the city where he was born 
and educated, challenging the regard of his military hearers for 
his native place, by the sententious allusion to it, as " no mean 

CITY." 

" It appears on the testimony of Paul, (Acts xxi. 39,) that Tarsus was a city of no 
little note, and it; is described by other writers as the most illustrious city of all Cilicia ; 
so much so indeed, thar the Tarsans traced their origin to Ionians and Argives, and 
a rank superior even to these ; — referring their antiquity of origin not merely to he- 
roes, but even to demi-gods. It was truly exalted, not only by its antiquity, situation, 
population, and thriving trade, but by the nobler pursuits of science and literature, 
which so flourished there, that according to Strabo it was worthy to be ranked with 
Athens and Alexandria ; and we know that Rome itself owed its most celebrated 
professors to Tarsus." (Witsius. § 1, IT iv.) 

The testimony of Strabo is found in his Geography, book XIV. Cellarius (Geog. 
Ant.) is very full on the geography of Cilicia, and may be advantageously consulted. 
Conder's Modern Traveler (Syria and Asia Minor 2) gives a very full account of its 
ancient history, its present condition, and its topography. 

The present appearance of this ancient city must be a matter of great interest to 
the reader of apostolic history ; and it cannot be more clearly given than in the 
simple narrative of the enterprising Burckhardt, who wrote his journal among the 
places which he describes. (Life of Burckhardt, prefixed to his travels in Nubia, pp. 
xv. xvi.) 

" The road from our anchoring place to Tarsus crosses the above-mentioned plain 
in an easterly direction: we passed several small rivulets which empty themselves 
into the sea, and which, to judge from the size of their beds, swell in the rainy sea- 
son to considerable torrents. We had rode about an hour, when I saw at half an 
hour's distance to the north of our route, the ruins of a large castle, upon a hill of a 
regular shape in the plain ; half an hour further towards Tarsus, at an equal dis- 
tance from our road, upon a second tumulus, were ruins resembling the former ; a 
third insulated hillock, close to which we passed midway of our route, was over- 
grown with grass, without any ruins or traces of them. I did not see in the whole 
plain any other elevations of ground but the three just mentioned. Not far from the 
first ruins, stands in the plain an insulated column. Large groups of trees show from 
afar the site of Tarsus. We passed a small river before we entered the town, larger 
than those we had met on the road. The western outer gate of the town, through 
which we entered, is of ancient structure ; it is a fine arch, the interior vault of which 



saul. 479 

is in perfect preservation : on the outside are some remains of a sculptured frieze. I 
did not see any inscriptions. To the right and left of this gateway are seen the an- 
cient ruined walls of the city, which extended in this direction farther than the town 
at present does. From the outer gateway, it is about four hundred paces to the mod- 
ern entrance of the city; the intermediate ground is filled up by a burying ground on 
one side of the road, and several gardens, with some miserable huts, on the other. 
********* The little I saw of Tarsus did not allow me to estimate 
its extent ; the streets through which I passed were all built of wood, and badly ; some 
well-furnished bazars, and a large and handsome mosque in the vicinity of the Khan, 
make up the whole register of curiosities which I am able to relate of Tarsus. Upon 
several maps Tarsus is marked as a sea town : this is incorrect ; the sea is above 
three miles distant from it. On our return home, we started in a S. W. direction, and 
passed, after two hours and a half's march, Casal, a large village, half a mile distant 
from the sea-shore, called the Port of Tarsus, because vessels freighted for Tarsus 
usually come to anchor in its neighborhood. From thence turning towards the west, 
we arrived at our ship at the end of two hours. The merchants of Tarsus trade 
principally with the Syrian coast and Cyprus: imperial ships arrive there from lime 
to time, to load grain. The land trade is of very little consequence, as the caravans 
from Smyrna arrive very seldom. There is no land communication at all between 
Tarsus and Aleppo, which is ten journeys (caravan traveling) distant from it. The 
road has been rendered unsafe, especially in later times, by the depredations of Kut- 
shuk AH, a savage rebel, who has established himself in the mountains to the north 
of Alexandretta. Tarsus is governed by an Aga, who I have reason to believe is 
almost independent." 

HIS GRECIAN LEARNING. 

In this splendid seat of knowledge, Saul was born of purely- 
Jewish parents. " A Hebrew of the Hebrews," he enjoyed from 
his earliest infancy that minute religious instruction, which every 
Israelite was in conscience bound to give his children ; and with 
a minuteness and attention so much the more careful, as a resi- 
dence in a foreign land, far away from the consecrated soil of 
Palestine and the Holy city of his faith, might increase the liabili- 
ties of his children to forget or neglect a religion of which they 
saw so few visible tokens around them, to keep alive their devo- 
tion. Yet, though thus strictly educated in the religion of his 
fathers, Saul was by no means cut off by this circumstance from 
the enjoyment of many of the advantages in profaner knowledge, 
afforded in such an eminent degree by Tarsus ; but must, almost 
without an effort, have daily imbibed into his ready and ever act- 
ive mind, much of the refining influence of Grecian philosophy. 
There is no proof, indeed, that he ever formally entered the schools 
of heathen science ; such a supposition is, perhaps, inconsistent 
with the idea of his principles of rigid Judaism, and is rendered 
rather improbable by the great want of Grecian elegance and ac- 
curacy in his writings ; which are so decidedly characterized by 
an unrhetorical style, and by irregular logic, that they never could 
have been the production of a scholar in the most eminent philo- 
sophical institutions of Asia. But a mere birth and residence in 
such a city, and the incidental but constant familiarity with those 



480 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

so absorbed in these pursuits as very many of his fellow-citizens 
were, would have the unavoidable effect of familiarizing him also 
with the great subjects of conversation, and the grand objects of 
pursuit, so as ever after to prove an advantage to him in his inter- 
course with the refined and educated among the Greeks and Ro- 
mans. The knowledge thus acquired, too, is ever found to be of 
the most readily available kind, always suggesting itself upon occa- 
sions when needed, according to the simple principle of association, 
and thus more easily applied to ordinary use than that which is 
more regularly attained, and is arranged in the mind only accord- 
ing to formal systems. Thus was it, with most evident wisdom, 
ordained by God, that in this great seat of heathen learning, that 
apostle should be born, who was to be the first messenger of grace 
to the Grecian world, and whose words of warning, even Rome 
should one day hear and believe. 

HIS FAMILY AND BIRTH. 

The parents of Saul were Jews, and his father, at least, was of 
the tribe of Benjamin. In some of those numerous emigrations 
from Judea which took place either by compulsion or by the volun- 
tary enterprise of the people, at various times, after the Assyrian 
conquest, the ancestors of Saul had left their father-land, for the 
fertile plains of Cilicia, where, under the patronizing government 
of some of the Syro-Macedonian kings, they found a much more 
profitable home than in the comparatively uncommercial land of 
Israel. On some one of these occasions, probably during the emi- 
gration under Antiochus the Great, the ancestors of Saul had set- 
tled in Tarsus, and during the period intervening between this 
emigration and the birth of Saul, the family seems to have main- 
tained or acquired a very respectable rank, and some property. 
From the distinct information which we have that Saul was a 
free-bom Roman citizen, it is manifest that his parents must also 
have possessed that right ; for it has already been abundantly 
shown that it was not common to the citizens of Tarsus, but must 
have been a peculiar privilege of his family. After the subjuga- 
tion of Cilicia, (sixty-two years before Christ,) when the province 
passed from the Syrian to the Roman sway, the family were in 
some way brought under the favorable notice of the new lords of 
the eastern world, and were honored with the high privilege of 
Roman citizenship, an honor which could not have been imparted 
to any one low either in birth or wealth. The precise nature of 



SAUL. 481 

the service performed by them, that produced such a magnificent 
reward, it is impossible to determine ; but that this must have 
been the reason, it is very natural to suppose. But whatever may 
have been the extent of the favors enjoyed by the parents of Saul, 
from the kindness of their heathen rulers, they were not thereby 
led to neglect the institutions of their fathers, — but even in a 
strange land, observed the Mosaic law with peculiar strictness ; 
for Saul himself plainly asserts that his father was a Pharisee, 
and therefore he must have been bound by the rigid observances 
of that sect, to a blameless deportment, as far as the Mosaic law 
required. 

" It ought not to seem very strange, that the ancestors of Paul should have settled 
in Cilicia, rather than in the land of Israel. For although Cyrus gave the whole 
people of God an opportunity of returning to their own country, yet many from each 
tribe preferred the new country, in which they had been bora and bred, to the old one, 
of which they had lost the remembrance. Hence an immense multitude of Jews 
might be found in almost all the dominions of the Persians, Greeks, Romans, and 
Parthians; as alluded to in Acts ii. 9, 10. Bat there were also other occasions and 
causes for the dispersion of the Jews. Ptolemy, the Macedonian king of Egypt, having 
taken Jerusalem from the Syro-Macedonians, led away many from the hill-country 
of Judea, from Samaria, and Mount Gerizim, into Egypt, where he made them settle ; 
and after he had given them at Alexandria the rights of citizens in equal privilege 
with the Macedonians, not a few of the rest, of their own accord, moved into Egypt, 
allured partly by the richness of the land, and partly by the good will that Ptolemy 
had shown towards their nation. Afterwards, Antiochus the Great, the Macedonian 
king of Syria, about the thirtieth year of his reign, two hundred years before the 
Christian era, brought out two thousand Jewish families from Babylonia, whom he 
sent into Phrygia and Lydia with the most ample privileges, that they might hold to 
their duty the minds of the Greeks, who were then inclining to revolt from his sway. 
These were from Asia Minor, spread abroad over the surrounding countries, be- 
tween the Mediterranean sea, the Euphrates, and Mount Amanus, on the frontiers of 
Cilicia. Besides, others afterwards, to escape the cruelties of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
betook themselves to foreign lands, where, finding themselves well settled, they and 
their descendents remained. Moreover, many, as Philo testifies, for the sake of 
trade, or other advantages, of their own accord, left the land of Israel for foreign coun- 
tries : whence almost the whole world was filled with colonies of Jews, as we see in 
the directions of some of the general epistles, (James i. 1 ; 1 Peter i. 1.) Thus also 
Tarsus had its share of Jewish inhabitants, among whom were the family of Paul." 
(Witsius. Vit. Paul. i. 5.) 

An instance of the value of the testimony of the Fathers on points where know- 
ledge of the Scriptures is involved, is found in the story by Jerome, who says that 
" Paul was born at Gischali, a city of Judea," (in Galilee,) " and that while he was 
a child, his parents, in the time of the laying waste of their country by the Romans, 
removed to Tarsus, in Cilicia." And yet this most learned of the Fathers, the trans- 
lator of the whole Bible into Latin, did not know, it seems, that Paul himself most 
distinctly states in his speech to the riotous Jews, (Acts xxii. 3,) that he was born in 
Cilicia," as the common translation has it; — in Greek, yeyzwrm'evos h Tapaio :% KtXt- 
Kias, — words which so far from allowing any such assertion as Jerome makes, even 
imply that Paul, with most especial particularity, would specify that he was " be- 
gotten in Cilicia." Jerome's ridiculous blunder, Witsius, after exposing its incon- 
sistency with Jewish history, indignantly condemns as " a most nasty fable," (puti- 
dissima fabula,) which is as hard a name as has been applied to any thing in this 
book. 

But if this blunder is so shameful in Jerome, what shall be said of the learned 
Fabricius, who (Biblioth. Gr. IV. p. 795) copies this story from Jerome as authentic 
history, without a note of comment, and without being aware that it most positively 
contradicts the direct assertion of Paul % And this blunder, too, is passed over by all 



482 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the great critical commentators of Fabricius, in Harles's enlarged edition. Keil, 
Kuinoel, Harles, Gurlitt, and others equally eminent, who revised all this, are in- 
volved in the discredit of the blunder. " Non omnes omnia." 

Born of such parents, the destined apostle at his birth was made 
the subject of the minute Mosaic rituals. " Circumcised the eighth 
day," he then received the name of Saul, a name connected with 
some glorious and some mournful associations in the ancient Jew- 
ish history, and probably suggested to the parents on this occasion, 
by a reference to its signification, for Hebrew names were often 
thus applied, expressing some circumstance connected with the 
child ; and in this name more particularly, some such meaning 
might be expected, since, historically, it must have been a word of 
rather evil omen. The original Hebrew means " desired" " asked 
for," and hence it has been rather fancifully, but not unreasonably 
conjectured that he was an oldest son, and particularly desired by 
his expecting parents, who were, like the whole Jewish race, very 
earnest to have a son to perpetuate their name, — a wish, however, 
by no means peculiar to the Israelites. 

The name Saul is in Hebrew Visa', the regular noun from the passive Kal partici- 
ple of Vns' (ska-al and sha-el) " ask for," " beg," " request ;" and the name therefore 
means " asked for," or " requested," which affords ground for Neander's curious 
conjecture, above given. 

Of the time of his birth nothing is definitely known, though it 
is stated by some ancient authority, of very doubtful character, that 
he was born in the second year after Christ. All that can be said 
with any probability, is, that he was born several years after Christ ; 
for at the time of the stoning of Stephen, (A. D. 34,) Saul was a 
"young man." 

HIS TRADE. 

There was an ancient Jewish proverb, — often quoted with great 
respect in the Rabbinical writings, — " He that does not teach his 
son a trade, trains him to steal." In conformity with this respect- 
able adage, every Jewish boy, high or low, was invariably taught 
some mechanical trade, as an essential part of his education, with- 
out any regard to the wealth of his family, or to his prospect of 
an easy life, without the necessity of labor. The consequence of 
this was, that even the dignified teachers of the law generally 
conjoined the practice of some mechanical business, with the re- 
fined studies to which they devoted the most of their time, and 
the surnames of some of the most eminent of the Rabbins are de- 
rived from the trades which they thus followed in the intervals of 
study, for a livelihood or for mental relaxation. The advantages 



saul. 483 

of such a variation from intense mental labor to active and steady- 
bodily exercise, are too obvious, both as concerns the benefit of the 
body and the mind, to need any elucidation ; but it is a happy co- 
incidence, worth noticing, that the better principles of what is now 
called "Manual Labor Instruction," are herein fully carried 
out, and sanctioned by the authority and example of some of the 
most illustrious of those ancient Hebrew scholars, whose mighty 
labors in sacred lore, are still a monument of the wisdom of a plan 
of education, which combines bodily activity and exertion with the 
full developments of the powers of thought. The labors of such 
men still remain the wonder of later days, and form in themselves, 
subjects for the excursive and penetrating range of some of the 
greatest minds of modern times, throwing more light on the minute 
signification and local application of scripture, than all that has 
been done in any other field of illustrative research. 

" In the education of their son, the parents of Saul thought it their duty, according 
to the fashion of their nation, not only to train his mind in the higher pursuits of a 
liberal education, but also to accustom his hands to some useful trade. As we learn 
from Acts xviii. 3, ' he was by trade- a tent-maker,' occupying the intervals of his 
study-hours with that kind of work. For it is well established that this was the usual 
habit of the most eminent Jewish scholars, who adopted it as much for the sake of 
avoiding sloth and idleness, as with a view to provide for their own support. The 
Jews used to sum up the duties of parents in a sort of proverb, that ' they should cir- 
cumcise their son, redeem him, (Leviticus, chapter xxvii.) teach him the law and a 
trade, and look out a wife for him.' And, indeed, the importance of some business 
of this kind was so much felt, that a saying is recorded of one of the most eminent 
of their Rabbins, that ' he who neglects to teach his son a trade, does the same as to 
bring him up to be a thief.' Hence it is that the wisest Hebrews held it an honor to 
take their surnames from their trades ; as ' Rabbins Nahum and Meir, the scriveners 
or book-writers,' [a business corresponding to that of printers in these times,] ' Rabbi 
Johanan the shoemaker, Rabbi Juda the baker, and Rabbi Jose the currier or tanner? 
How trifling then is the sneer of some scoffers who have said that Paul was nothing 
but a stitcher of skins, and thence conclude that he was a man of the lowest class of 
the populace I" (Witsius i. 12.) 

The trade which the parents of Saul selected for their son, is 
described in the sacred apostolic history as that of a " tent-maker." 
A reference to the local history of his native province throws great 
light on this account. In the wild mountains of Cilicia, which 
everywhere begin to rise from the plains, at a distance of seven 
or eight miles from the coast, anciently ranged a peculiar species 
of long-haired goats, so well known by name throughout the Gre- 
cian world, for their rough and shaggy aspect, that the name of 
" Cilician goat" became a proverbial expression, to signify a rough, 
ill-bred fellow, and occurs in this sense in the classic writers. 
From the hair of these, the Cilicians manufactured a thick, coarse 
cloth, — somewhat resembling the similar product of the camel's 

hair, — which, from the country where the cloth was made, and 
63 



484 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

where the raw material was produced, was called cilicium or ci- 
licia, and under this name it is very often mentioned, both by- 
Grecian and Roman authors. The peculiar strength and incor- 
ruptibility of this cloth were so well known, that it was considered 
as one of the most desirable articles for several very important 
purposes, both in war and navigation, being the best material for 
the sails of vessels, as well as for military tents. But it was prin- 
cipally used by the Nomadic Arabs of the neighboring deserts of 
Syria, who, ranging from Amanus and the sea, to the Euphrates, 
and beyond, found the tents manufactured from this stout cloth, so 
durable and convenient, that they depended on the Cilicians to 
furnish them with the material of their moveable homes ; and 
over all the east, the cilicium was in great demand, for shepherd's 
tents. A passage from Pliny forms a splendid illustration of this 
interesting little point. " The wandering tribes, (Nomad es,) and 
the tribes who plunder the Chaldeans, are bordered by Scenites, 
(tent-dioellers,) who are themselves also wanderers, but take their 
name from their tents, which they raise of Cilician cloth, wherever 
inclination leads them." This was therefore an article of national 
industry among the Cilicians, and afforded in its manufacture, 
profitable employment to a great number of workmen, who were 
occupied, not in large establishments like the great manufactories 
of modern European nations, but, according to the invariable mode 
m eastern countries, each one by himself, or at most with one or 
two companions. Saul, however, seems to have been occupied 
only with the concluding part of the manufacture, which was the 
making up of the cloth into the articles for which it was so well 
fitted by its strength, closeness, and durability. He was a maker 
of tents of Cilician camlet, or goat's-hair cloth, — a business which, 
in its character and implements, more resembled that of a sail- 
maker than any other common trade in this country. The details 
of the work must have consisted in cutting the camlet of the 
shape required for each part of the tent, and sewing it together 
into the large pieces, which were then ready to be transported, and 
to form, when hung on tent-poles, the habitations of the desert- 
wanderers. 

This illustration of Saul's trade is from Hug's Introduction, Vol. II. note on § 85 
pp. 328, 329, original ; § 80, pp. 335, 336, translation. On the manufacture of this 
cloth, see Gloss. Basil, sub voc. Kiti/cios -pdyos, &c. " Cilician goat,— a rough fellow; 
—for there are such goats in Cilicia ; whence, a]so, things made of their hair are 
called cilicia." He quotes also Hesychius, Suidas, and Salmasius in Solinum, p. 
347. As to the use of the cloths in war and navigation, he refers to Vegetius, De re 
milit. IV. 6, and Servius in Georgic. III. 312.— The passage in Pliny, showing their 



saul. 485 

use by the Nomadic tribes of Syria and Mesopotamia for shepherd's tents, is in his 
Nat. Hist., VI. 28. " Nomadas infestatoresque Chaldaeorum, Scenitae claudunt, et 
ipsi vagi, sed a tabernaculis cognominati quae cilichs metantur, ubi libuit." The 
reading of this passage which I have adopted, is from the Leyden Hackian edition 
of Pliny, which differs slightly from that followed by Hug, as the critical will per- 
ceive. Hemsen quotes this note almost verbatim from Hug. (Hemsen's " Apostel 
Paulus," page 4.) 

The particular species or variety of goat, which is thus described as anciently in- 
habiting the mountains of Cilicia, can not now be distinctly ascertained, because no 
scientific traveler has ever made observations on the animals of that region, owing 
to the many difficulties in the way of any exploration of Asia Minor, under the bar- 
barous Ottoman sway. Neither Griffith's Cuvier nor Turton's Linnaeus contains 
any reference to Cilicia, as inhabited by any species or variety of the genus Capra. 
The nearest approach to certainty, that can be made with so few data, is the reason- 
able conjecture that the Cilician goat was a variety of the species Capra Aegagrus, 
to which the common domestic goat belongs, and which includes several remarkable 
varieties, — at least six being well ascertained. There are few of my readers, proba- 
bly, who are not familiar with the descriptions and pictures of the famous Angora 
goat, which is one of these varieties, and is well known for its long, soft, silky hair, 
which is to this day used in the manufacture of a sort of camlet, in the place where 
it is found, which is Angora, and the region around it, from the Halys to the San- 
garius. This tract of country is in Asia Minor, only three or four hundred miles 
north of Cilicia, and therefore at once suggests the probability of the Cilician goat 
being something very much like the Angora goat. (See Mod. Trav. III. p. 339.) 
On the other side of Cilicia, also, in Syria, there is an equally remarkable variety of 
the goat, with similar long, silky hair, used for the same manufacture. Now Cilicia, 
being directlyon the shortest route from Angora to Syria, and half-way between 
both, might very naturally be supposed to have another variety of the Capra Aega- 
grus, between the Angoran and the Syrian variety, and resembling both in the com- 
mon characteristic of long shaggy or silky hair; and there can be no reasonable 
doubt that future scientific observation will show that the Cilician goat forms another 
well-marked variety of this widely diffused species, which, wherever it inhabits the 
mountains of the warm regions of Asia, always furnishes this beautiful product, of 
which we have another splendid and familiar specimen in the Tibet and Cashmere 
goats, whose fleeces are worth more than their weight in gold. The hair of the Sy- 
rian and Cilician goats, however, is of a much coarser character, producing a much 
coarser and stouter fibre for the cloth. 

On the subject of Paul's trade, the learned and usually accurate Michaelis was led 
into a very great error, by taking up too hastily a conjecture founded on a misappre- 
hension of the meaning given by Julius Pollux, in his Onomasticon, on the word 
cKvvoTToids, (skenopoios,) which is the word used in Acts xiii. 3, to designate the trade 
of Saul and Aquilas. Pollux mentions that, in the language of the old Grecian 
comedy, okwo-koios was equivalent to yrixavo-noins, (mechanopoios,) which Michaelis very 
erroneously takes in the sense of " a maker of mechanical instruments," and this he 
therefore maintains to have been the trade of Saul and Aquilas. -But it is capable of 
the most satisfactory proof, that Julius Pollux used the words here merely in the 
technical sense of theatrical preparation, — the first meaning simply " a scene-maker," 
and the second " a constructor of theatrical machinery,"— both terms, of course, na- 
turally applied to the same artist. (Mich. Int. IV. xxiii. 2, pp. 183—186. Marsh's 
translation.— Hug, II. § 85, orig. § 80, trans.) 

The Fathers also made similar blunders about the nature of Saul's trade. They 
call him o-K-vrorfyo?, (skutolomos,) " a skin-cutter," as well as oi<r)voppa<pos, " a tent- 
maker." This was because they were entirely ignorant of the material used for the 
manufacture of tents; for, living themselves in the civilized regions of Greece, Italy, 
&c, they knew nothing of the habitations of the Nomadic tent-dwellers. Chrysos- 
tom, in particular, calls him " one who worked in skins." 

Fabricius gives some valuable illustrations of this point. (Biblioth. Gr. IV. p. 795, 
bb.) He quotes Cotelerius, (ad. Apost. Const. II. 63,) Erasmus, &c. (ad. Act xviii. 3,) 
and Schurzfleisch, (in diss, de Paulo, &c.) who brings sundry passages from Dio 
Chrysostom and Libanius, to prove that there were many in Cilicia who worked in 
leather, as he says; in support of which he quotes Martial, (epig. xiv. 114,) alluding 
to " udones cilicii," or " cilician cloaks" (used to keep off rain, as water-proof,) — not 
knowing that this word, cilicium, was the name of a very close and stout cloth, from 
the goat's hair, equally valuable as a covering for a single person, and for the habita- 



486 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

tion of a whole family. In short, Martial's passage shows that the Cilician camlet 
was used like the modern camlet, — for cloaks. Fabricius himself seems to make no 
account of this notion of Schurzfleisch ; for immediately after, he states (what I 
cannot find on anv other authority) that " even at this day, as late books of travels 
testify, variegated cloths are exported from Cilicia." This is certainly true of An- 
gora in Asia Minor, northwest of Cilicia, (Mod. Trav. III. p. 339,) and may be true 
of Cilicia itself. Fabricius notices 2 Cor. v. 1, and xii. 9, as containing figures 
drawn from Saul's trade. 

HIS EARLY EDUCATION. 

But this was not destined to be the most important occupation 
of Saul's life. Even his parents had nobler objects in view for 
him, and evidently devoted him to this handicraft, only in con- 
formity with those ancient Jewish usages which had the force of 
law on every true Israelite, whether rich or poor ; and according- 
ly he was sent, while yet in his youth, away from his home in 
Tarsus, to Jerusalem, the fountain of religious and legal know- 
ledge to all the race of Judah and Benjamin, throughout the world. 
To what extent his general education had been carried in Tarsus, 
is little known ; but he had acquired that fluency in the Greek, 
which is displayed in his writings, though contaminated with 
many of the provincialisms of Cilicia, and more especially with 
the barbarisms of Hebrew usage. Living in daily intercourse, both 
in the way of business and friendship, with the active Grecians 
of that thriving city, and led, no doubt, by his own intellectual 
character and tastes, to the occasional cultivation of those classics 
which were the delight of his Gentile acquaintances, he acquired 
a readiness and power in the use of the Greek language, and a 
familiarity with the favorite writers of the Asian Hellenes, that in 
the providence of God most eminently fitted him for the sphere to 
which he was afterwards devoted, and was the true ground of his 
wonderful acceptability to the highly literary people among whom 
his great and most successful labors were performed, and to whom 
all of his epistles, but two, were written. All these writings show 
proofs of such an acquaintance with Greek, as is here inferred 
from his opportunities in education. His well-known quotations 
also, from Menander and Epimenides, and more especially his happy 
impromptu reference in his discourse at Athens, to the line from his 
own fellow-Cilician, Aratus, are instances of a very great familiarity 
with the classics, and are thrown out in such an unstudied, off- 
hand way, as to imply a ready knowledge of these writers. But 
all these were, no doubt, learned in the mere occasional manner 
already alluded to in connexion with the reputation and literary 
character of Tarsus. He was devoted by all the considerations of 



saul. 487 

ancestral pride and religious zeal to the study of " a classic, the 
best the world has ever seen, — the noblest that has ever honored 
and dignified the language of mortals." 

HIS REMOVAL TO JERUSALEM. 

Strabo, in speaking of the remarkable literary and philosophical 
zeal of the refined inhabitants of Tarsus, says, that " after having 
well laid the foundations of literature and science in their own 
schools at home, it was usual for them to resort to those in other 
places, in order to pursue zealously the cultivation of their minds 
still further," by the varied modes and opportunities presented in 
different schools throughout the Hellenic world, — a noble spirit of 
literary enterprise, accordant with the practice of the most ancient 
philosophers, and like the course also pursued by the modern Ger- 
man scholars, many of whom go from one university to another, 
to enjoy the peculiar advantages afforded by each in some particu- 
lar department. It was, therefore, only in a noble emulation of 
the example of his heathen fellow-townsmen, in the pursuit of pro- 
fane knowledge, that Saul left the city of his birth and his father's 
house, to seek a deeper knowledge of the sacred sources of He- 
brew learning, in the capital of the faith. This removal to so 
great a distance, for such a purpose, evidently implies the posses- 
sion of considerable wealth in the family of Saul ; for a literary 
sojourn of that kind, in a great city, could not but be attended with 
very considerable expense as well as trouble. 

HIS TEACHER. 

Saul having been thus endowed with a liberal education at 
home, and with the principles of the Jewish faith, as far as his age 
would allow, went up to Jerusalem to enjoy the instruction of 
Gamaliel. There is every reason to believe that this was Gamaliel 
the elder, grandson of Hillel, and son of Simeon, (probably the 
same who, in his old age, took the child Jesus in his arms,) and 
father of another Simeon, in whose time the temple was destroyed ; 
for the Rabbinical writings give a minute account of him, as con- 
nected with all these persons. This Gamaliel succeeded his an- 
cestors in the rank which was then esteemed the highest ; this 
was the office of " head of the college," otherwise called " Prince 
of the Jewish senate." Out of respect to this most eminent Father 
of Hebrew learning, as it is recorded, Onkelos, the renowned 
Chaldee paraphrast, burned at his funeral seventy pounds of in- 



488 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

cense, in honor to the high rank and learning of the deceased. 
This eminent teacher was at first not ill-disposed towards the 
apostles, who, he thought, ought to be left to their own fate ; being 
led to this moderate and reasonable course, perhaps, by the circum- 
stance that the Sadducees, whom he hated, were most active in 
their persecution. The sound sense and humane wisdom that 
mark his sagely eloquent opinion, so wonderful in that bloody 
time, have justly secured him the admiration and respect of all 
Christian readers of the record ; and not without regret would 
they learn, that the after doings of his life, unrecorded by the sa- 
cred historian, yet on the testimony of others, bear witness against 
him as having changed from this wise principle of action. If 
there is any ground for the story which Maimonides tells, it would 
seem, that when Gamaliel saw the new heretical sect multiplying 
in his own days, and drawing away the Israelites from the Mosaic 
forms, he, together with the Senate, whose President he was, gave 
his utmost endeavors to crush the followers of Christ, and com- 
posed a form of prayer, by which God was besought to exterminate 
these heretics ; which was to be connected to the usual forms of 
prayer in the Jewish liturgy. This story of Maimonides, if it is 
adopted as true, on so slight grounds, may be reconciled with the 
account given by Luke, in two ways. First, Gamaliel may have 
thought that the apostles and their successors, although heretics, 
were not to be put down by human force, or by the contrivances 
of human ingenuity, but that the whole matter should be left to 
the hidden providence of God, and that their extermination should 
be obtained from God by prayers. Or, second, — to make a more 
simple and rational supposition, — he may have been so struck by 
the boldness of the apostles, and by the evidence of the miracles 
performed by them, as to express a milder opinion on them at that 
particular moment ; but afterwards may have formed a harsher 
judgment, when, contrary to all expectation, he saw the wonderful 
growth of Christianity, and heard, with his wrathful and indig- 
nant brethren, the stern rebuke of Stephen. But these loose relies 
of tradition, offered on such very suspicious authority as that of 
a Jew of the ages when Christianity had become so odious to Ju- 
daism b}?- its triumphs, may without hesitation be rejected as wholly 
inconsistent with the noble spirit of Gamaliel, as expressed in the 
clear, impartial account of Luke ; and both of the suppositions 
here offered by others, to reconcile sacred truth with mere false- 
hood, are thus rendered entirely unnecessary. 



saul. 489 

At the feet of this Gamaliel, then, was Saul brought up. (Acts xxii. 3.) It has been 
observed on this passage, by learned commentators, that this expression refers to the 
fashion followed by students, of sitting and lying down on the ground or on mats, at 
the feet of their teacher, who sat by himself on a higher place. And indeed so many 
are the traces of this fashion among the recorded labors of the Hebrews, that it does 
not seem possible to call it in question. Scaliger (Elench. Trihaeres.) has brought to 
light many illustrations of the point ; besides which another is offered in a well-known 
passage, quoted by Witsius, from a Talmudic book, entitled — h-on ^a Pirke Aboth, 
or " Fragments of the Fathers." Speaking of the wise, it is said, " Make thyself dusty 
in the dust of their feet," — orr»!?r? "i£p p^xno «n — meaning that the young student is to 
be a diligent hearer at the feet of the wise. The same thing is farther illustrated by 
a passage which Buxtorf has given in his Recension of the Talmud, in the portion 
entitled rvo-o (Berachoth,) n-'nnn -mDSn ■o-o pi D-o-^im pyrin jd nan} ipo " Take away 
your sons from the study of the Bible, and make them sit between the knees of the 
disciples of the wise ■" which is equivalent to a recommendation of oral, as superior 
to written instruction. The same principle, of varying the mode in which the mind 
receives knowledge, is recognized in modern systems of education, with a view to 
avoid the self-conceit and intolerant pride which solitary study is apt to engender, as 
well as because, from the living voice of the teacher, the young scholar learns in that 
practical, simple mode, which is most valuable and efficient, as it is that in which 
alone all his knowledge of the living and speaking world must be obtained. It should 
be observed, however, that Buxtorf, in his Lexicon of the Talmud, seems to have un- 
derstood this passage rather differently from Witsius, whose construction is followed 
in the translation given above. Buxtorf, following the ordinary meaning of pnn 
(heg-yon,) seems to prefer the sense of " meditation." He rejects the common trans- 
lation — " study of the Bible," as altogether irreligious. "In hoc sensu, praeceptum 
impium est." . He says that other Glosses of the passage give it the meaning of " boy- 
ish talk," (garritus puerorum.) But this is a sense perfectly contradictory to all usage 
of the word, and was evidently invented only to avoid the seemingly irreligious cha- 
racter of the literal version. (See Buxtorf. Lexicon Talmudicum. subvoc.) But 
why may not all difficulties be removed by a reference to the primary signification, 
which is "solitary meditation," in opposition to " instruction by others V 1 See this 
Use of the theme run in Psalm i. 2. 

We have in the gospel history itself, also, the instance of Mary. (Luke x. 39.) 
The passage in Mark iii. 32, " The multitude sat down around him," farther illus- 
trates this usage. There is an old Hebrew tradition, mentioned with great rev- 
erence by Maimonides, to this effect: — " From the days of Moses down to Rabban 
Gamaliel, they always studied the law standing; but after Rabban Gamaliel was 
dead, weakness descended on the world, and they studied the law sitting." (Wit- 
sius, i. 14.) 

The name " Gamaliel" was common, among the Jews ; there was a certain patri- 
arch of that name in the time of Honorius, of whom mention is made in a law of 
Honorius, in the Theodosian code. (Grot.) — The first Gamaliel was the teacher 
not only of Paul, but also of Barnabas and Stephen, (Cornelius A Lapide,) — called 
Gamaliel the elder, to distinguish him from his son and grandson of the same name. 
These three were all so highly eminent, that they with only four others were distin- 
guished by that peculiar title of RABBAN, which was the highest of all. This cir- 
cumstance shows his fame and rank. (Lighlfool.) The story that he was afterwards 
converted to Christianity, is proved from the Talmudic writings to be false. (Poole's 
Synopsis. Acts v. 34.) 

HIS JEWISH OPINIONS. 

Jerusalem was the seat of what may be called the great Jewish 
University. The Rabbins, or teachers, united in themselves, not 
merely the sources of Biblical and theological learning, but also 
the whole system of instruction in that civil law by which their 
nation were still allowed to be governed, with only some slight 
exceptions as to the right of punishment. There was no distinc- 
tion, in short, between the professions of divinity and law, the 



490 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Rabbins being teachers of the whole Mosaic system, and those 
who entered on a coarse of study under them, aiming at the 
knowledge of both those departments of learning, which, through- 
out the western nations, are now kept, for the most part, entirely 
distinct. Saul was therefore a student both of theology and law, 
and entered himself as a hearer of the lectures of one, who may, 
in modern phrase, be styled the most eminent professor in the 
great Hebrew university of Jerusalem. From him he learned 
the law and the Jewish traditional doctrines, as illustrated and 
perfected by the Fathers of the Pharisaic order. His steady 
energy and resolute activity were here all made available to the 
very complete attainment of the mysteries of knowledge ; and 
the success with which he prosecuted his studies may be best ap- 
preciated by a minute examination of his writings, which every- 
where exhibit indubitable marks of a deep and critical knowledge 
of all the details of Jewish theology and law. He shows him- 
self to have been deeply versed in all the standard modes of ex- 
plaining the Scriptures among the Hebrews, — by allegory, — typol- 
ogy, accommodation, and tradition. Yet though thus ardently 
drinking the streams of Biblical knowledge from this great foun- 
tain-head, he seems to have been very far from imbibing the mild 
and merciful spirit of his great teacher, as it had been so emi- 
nently displayed in his sage decision on the trial of the apostles. 
The acquisition of knowledge, even under such an instructor, 
was, in Saul, attended with the somewhat common evils to wnich 
a young mind, rapidly advanced in dogmatical learning, is natu- 
raMy liable, — a bitter, denunciatory intolerance of any opinions 
contrary to his own, — a spiteful feeling towards all doctrinal op- 
ponents, and a disposition to punish speculative errors as actual 
crimes. All these common faults were very remarkably devel- 
oped in Saul, by that uncommon harshness and fierceness by which 
he was so strongly characterized ; and his worst feelings broke out 
with all their fury against the rising heretics, who without any 
regular education, were assuming the office of religious teachers, 
and were understood to be seducing the people from their allegi- 
ance and due respect to the qualified scholars of the law. The 
occasion on which these unrighteous passions first exhibited them- 
selves in decided action against the Christians, was the murder 
of Stephen, of which the details have already been fully given 
in that part of the Life of Peter which is connected with it. Of 
those who engaged in the previous disputes with the proto-martyr, 



SAUL. 491 

the members of the Cilician synagogue are mentioned among 
others ; and with these Saul would very naturally be numbered ; 
for, residing at a great distance from his native province, he would 
with pleasure seek the company of those residents in Jerusalem 
who were from Cilicia, and join with them in the study of the 
law and the weekly worship of God. What part he took in these 
animated and angry discussions, is not known ; but his well known 
power in argument affords good reason for believing, that the elo- 
quence and logical acuteness which he afterwards displayed in the 
cause of Christ, were now made use of, against the ablest defenders 
of that same cause. His fierce spirit, no doubt, rose with the rest 
in that burst of indignation against the martyr, who fearlessly 
stood up before the council, pouring out a flood of invective against 
the unjust destroyers of the holy prophets of God ; and when they 
all rushed upon the preacher of righteousness, and dragged him 
away from the tribunal to the place of execution, Saul also was 
consenting to his death ; and when the blood of the martyr was 
shed, he stood by, approving the deed, and kept the clothes of 
them who slew him. 

" Paul, like his teacher, Gamaliel, was also of the sect of the Pharisees. This he 
often refers to, as if it was a thing held in high honor among the Jews. As in Phi- 
lippians iii. 5, where the word translated law may be taken to mean either the sect 
characteristically distinct from all others — (' by sect a Pharisee ;') or it may mean a 
peculiar mode of explaining the law of Moses,— (' a Pharisee in my modes of un- 
derstanding the law.') The passage in Acts ii. 3, — ' taught after the strictest rules 
of the law of the fathers,' also illustrates this point. For the same reason also, in 
Acts xxvi. 5, he is said to have been ' of the strictest sect of the Jewish religion.' 
A like phrase is used by Josephus, in his history of the Jewish War, Book I. chapter 
IV. ' They (the Pharisees) seem to be more pious than any other Jewish sect, and 
to follow the laws more strictly.' The same author also remarks, in his own life, — 
' The members of the sect of the Pharisees differ from others in the strictness with 
which they observe the laws of the Fathers.' By such remarkable preciseness dis- 
tinguishing themselves from all others, they took great pride in being called Pharisees, 
for in Hebrew the word vi^b (pharush) is by some taken to mean ' separation' and 
' setting apart' from others. The Rabbinical commentators say that the name Phari- 
see is used because he who bore it ' was separated from the ways of the world, to wait 
on the name of the Lord in prayer and the celebration of the praises of God.' This 
strictness of which Paul speaks, consisted partly in doctrine, and partly in the manner 
of life. As to doctrines, they embraced as most perfect all those which were in the 
law of Moses, and also all others which were believed to be particularly suitable and 
efficacious for glorifying God and engendering piety in the minds of men ;— such as 
the articles on the spiritual nature of souls, and the existence of them out of the 
body, — on the resurrection of the body, — on the distribution of rewards and punish- 
ments after this life, and on other things which are connected with these. So that 
by their profession, at least, they seem to deserve a praise far above what the Sad- 
ducees can claim. (Acts xxiii. 6, 7, 8.) In their mode of life the Pharisees were 
characterized by a remarkable stiffness, and, as Epiphanius calls it. 'a would-be- 
religious parade,' as we have instances in Luke xviii. 11, 12, and Matthew xxiii. 5, 
23, 25. Of the same character was their fashion of sleeping on boards but nine inches 
wide, so that rolling off upon the floor they might be awaked to pray. For the same 
reason they now and then strewed little stones under them, and sometimes thorns, 
either to hinder themselves from sleeping foo long, or at all. In a word, they with- 
64 



492 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

drew themselves from the vulgar herd of men, and kept carefully clear from un- 
cleanness all their days, which Moses Maimonides declares to be, as it were, the 
summit of holiness and the path of purest religion." (Witsius, Vit. Paul. i. 15, 
pp. 14, 15.) 

Hug gives a fine sketch of Paul's character as a Pharisee, a scholar, and a writer. 
(Hug, Introd. II. 86—89, pp. 330—337, original.) 

HIS PERSECUTING CHARACTER. 

The very active share which Saul took in this and the subse- 
quent cruelties of a similar nature, is in itself a decided though 
terrible proof of that remarkable independence of character, which 
was so distinctly displayed in the greatest events of his apostolic 
career. Saul was no slave to the opinions of others ; nor did he 
take up his active persecuting course on the mere dictation of 
higher authority. On the contrary, his whole behavior towards 
the followers of Jesus was directly opposed to the policy so dis- 
tinctly urged and so efficiently maintained, in at least one instance, 
by his great teacher, Gamaliel, whose precepts and example on this 
subject must have influenced his bold young disciple, if any au- 
thority could have had such an effect on him. From Gamaliel 
and his disciples, Saul must have received his earliest impressions 
of the character of Christ and his doctrines ; for it is altogether 
probable that he did not reach Jerusalem until some time after the 
ascension of Christ, and there is therefore no reason to suppose 
that he himself had ever heard or seen him. Nevertheless, brought 
up in the school of the greatest of the Pharisees, he would receive 
from all his teachers and associates, an impression decidedly un- 
favorable, of the Christian sect ; though the uniform mildness of 
the Pharisees, as to vindictive measures, would temper the princi- 
ples of action, recommended in regard to the course of conduct 
to be adopted towards them. The rapid advance of the new sect, 
however, soon brought them more and more under the invidious 
notice of the Pharisees, who in the lifetime of Jesus had been the 
most determined opposers of him and his doctrines ; and the atten- 
tion of Saul would therefore be constantly directed to the prepara- 
tion for contest with them. 

Stephen's murder seems to have unlocked all the persecuting 
spirit of Saul. He immediately laid his hand to the work of per- 
secuting the friends of Jesus, with a fury that could not be allayed 
by a single act. Nor was he satisfied with merely keeping a 
watchful eye on every thing that was openly done by them ; but 
under authority from the Sanhedrim, breaking into the retirement 
of their homes, to hunt them out for destruction, he had them 



saul. 493 

thrown into prison, and scourged in the synagogues, and threat- 
ened even with death ; by all which cruelties he so overcame the 
spirit of many of them, that they were forced to renounce the 
faith which they had adopted, and blaspheme the name of Christ 
in public recantations. This furious persecution soon drove them 
from Jerusalem in great numbers, to other cities. Samaria, as well 
as the distant parts of Judea, are mentioned as their places of re- 
fuge, and not a few fled beyond the bounds of Palestine into the 
cities of Syria. But even these distant exiles were not, by their 
flight into far countries, removed from the effects of the burning 
zeal of their persecutor. Longing for an opportunity to give a 
still wider range to his cruelties, he went to the great council, 
and begged of them such a commission as would authorize him to 
pursue his vindictive measures wherever the sanction of their name 
could support such actions. Among the probable inducements to 
this selection of a foreign field for his unrighteous work, may be 
reasonably placed, the circumstance that Damascus was at this 
time under the government of Aretas, an Arabian prince, into 
whose hands it fell for a short time, during which the equitable 
principles of Roman tolerance no longer operated as a check on 
the murderous spite of the Jews ; for the new ruler, anxious to se- 
cure his dominion by ingratiating himself with the subjects of it, 
would not be disposed to neglect any opportunity for pleasing so 
powerful and influential a portion of the population of Damascus 
as the Jews were, — who lived there in such numbers, that in some 
disturbances which arose a few years after, between them and the 
other inhabitants, ten thousand Jews were slain unarmed, while 
in the public baths, enjoying themselves after the fatigues of the 
day, without any expectation of violence. So large a Jewish po- 
pulation would be secure of the support of Aretas in any favorite 
measure. Saul, well knowing these circumstances, must have 
been greatly influenced by this motive, to seek a commission to 
labor in a field where the firm tolerance of Roman sway was dis- 
placed by the baser rule of a petty prince, whose weakness ren- 
dered him subservient to the tyrannical wishes of his subjects. In 
Jerusalem the Roman government would not suffer any thing like 
a systematic destruction of its subjects, nor authorize the taking 
of life by any religious tribunal, though it might pass over, unpun- 
ished, a solitary act of mob violence, like the murder of Stephen. 
It is perfectly incontestable, therefore, that the persecution in Jeru- 
salem could not have extended to the repeated destruction of life ; 



494 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

and that passage in Paul's discourse to Agrippa, which has been 
supposed to prove a plurality of capital punishments, has accord- 
ingly been construed in a more limited sense, by the ablest modern 
commentators. 

A more limited sense. — Kuinoel, on Acts xxv. 1, 10, maintains this fully, and quotes 
other authorities. See my note on page 211. 

Prisons. — " The Jews used prisons as we do, for two purposes. First, for the 
keeping of the accused, in view of which it was called nnaro (mishmar,) — the word 
used in Genesis xi. 3 ; but in Jeremiah xxxviii. 28, it is called rxypn (moMarah.) 
Secondly, for places of punishment, to which use a miry dungeon was sometimes 
applied, like that into which the prophet was put, (Jeremiah xxxviii. 6.) This was 
probably a more secure place, in the heart of the prison, which they called rosnn 
(mahepeketh.) Thus Asa, when indignant at the just rebuke of the prophet, violating 
all right, cast him into the rosnn n-o (beth mahepeketh,) ' house of the dungeon.' 
2 Chronicles xvi. 10. In the same spirit, Shemaiah, the spiteful foe of Jeremiah, 
earnestly trove to excite Zephaniah and the other priests who were set over the house 
of Jehovah, to put Jeremiah ' in the prison and the stocks,' [as it is given in the 
English version.] Jeremiah xxix. 26. Here the 'Hebrew word translated stocks, 
[derived from the verb nan (haphak,) which means bend or turn,] refers to the crooked 
and hoisted position of the body while thus confined, and is cognate with the Chaldee 
word X2^(kipha,) which is so often used in the Talmud. Of this, Cocceius gives the 
following definition in his Notes on the Sanhedrim: c It is a dungeon in the prison, 
equaling the size of a man so exactly that it gives him no chance to stretch himself 
out to sleep.' Into such a hole, according to the common law and usages of the Jews, 
were those thrust who had for a third time been guilty of an offense punishable with 
excommunication, after having been twice scourged. c Such an offender is beaten no 
more, but is shut up in a hole made for that purpose, which is a narrow place, corres- 
ponding to the length of a man, so as not to allow him to sit down; there he is kept 
on the bread of affliction and the water of distress, even until his bowels are pained 
and sickened. Afterwards they feed him on barley until his belly bursts.' (Schickard, 
De jure Regum, ii. 2.) As history is silent respecting Paul's object in so furiously 
procuring the imprisonment of faithful disciples of Jesus, it would be hard now to 
tell whether he did it with a view to their punishment, or merely to hold them com- 
mitted for trial." (Witsius i. 18.) 

" It seems to some a strange business, that Paul should have had the Christians 
whipped through the synagogues. Why, in a house consecrated to prayer and reli- 
gion, were sentences of a criminal court passed, and the punishment executed on the 
criminal 1 This difficulty seemed so great, even to the learned and judicious Beza, 
that in the face of the testimony of all manuscripts, he would have us suspect the 
genuineness of the passage in Matt. x. 17, where Christ uses the same expression. 
Such a liberty as he would thus take with the sacred text, is of course against all 
modern rules of sacred criticism. For what should we do then with Matt, xxiii. 34, 
where the same passage occurs again 1 Grotius, to explain the difficulty, would have 
the word synagogues understood, not in the sense of houses of prayer, but of civil 
courts of justice ; since such a meaning may be drawn from the etymology of the 
Greek word thus translated, (cwaywyh, ' a gathering together, or assembling for any 
purpose.') But that too is a forced construction, for no instance can be brought out 
of the New Testament, where the word is used in that sense, or any other than the 
common one. What then 1 We cannot be allowed to set up the speculations which 
we have contrived to agree with our own notions, against accounts given in so 
full and clear a manner. Suppose, for a moment, that we could find no traces of 
the custom of scourging in the synagogues, in other writers ; ought that to be con- 
sidered doubtful, which is thus stated by Christ and Paul, in the plainest terms, as a 
fact commonly and perfectly well known in their time 1 Nor is there any reason 
why scourging in the synagogues should seem so unaccountable to us, since it was a 
grade of discipline less than excommunication, and less disgraceful. For it is made 
to appear that some of the most eminent of the wise, when they broke the law, were 
thus punished,— not even excepting the head of the Senate, nor the high priest him- 
self." (Witsius, § i. IT 19.) Witsius illustrates it still farther, by the ^stories which 
follow. 

H But there are instances of flagellation in synagogues found in other accounts. 



saul. 495 

Grotius himself quotes from Epiphanius, that a certain Jew who wished to revolt to 
Christianity, was whipped in the synagogue. The story is to the following purport : 
'A man, named Joseph, a messenger of the Jewish patriarch, went into Cilicia by 
order of the patriarch, to collect the tithes and first-fruits from the Jews of that pro- 
vince ; and while on his tour of duty, lodged in a house near a Christian church. 
Having, by means of this, become acquainted with the pastor, he privately begs the 
loan of the book of the gospels, and reads it. But the Jews, getting wind of this, 
were so enraged against him, that on a sudden they made an assault on the house, and 
caught Joseph in the very act of reading the gospels. Snatching the book out of his 
hands, they knocked him down, and crying out against him with all sorts of abuse, 
they led htm away to the synagogue, where they whipped him with rods.' 

" Very much like this is the more modern story which Uriel Acosta tells of him- 
self, in a little book, entitled, ' The Pattern of Human Life.' The thing took place 
in Amsterdam, about the year 1630. It seems this Uriel Acosta was a Jew by birth, 
but being a sort of Epicurean philosopher, had some rather heretical notions about 
most of the articles of the Jewish creed ; and on this charge, being called to account 
by the rulers of the synagogue, stood on his trial. In the end of it, a paper was read 
to him, in which it was specified that he must come into the synagogue, clothed in a 
mourning garment, holding a black wax-light in his hand, and should utter openly 
before the congregation a certain form of words prescribed by them, in which the 
offenses he had committed were magnified beyond measure. After this, that he 
should be flogged with a cowskin or strap, publicly, in the synagogue, and then 
should lay himself down flat on the threshold of the synagogue, that all might walk 
over him. How thoroughly this sentence was executed, is best learned from his own 
amusing and candid story, which is given in the very words, as literally as they 
can be translated. ' I entered the synagogue, which was full of men and women, 
(for they had crammed in together to see the show,) and when it was time, I mounted 
the wooden platform, which was placed in the midst of the synagogue for convenience 
in preaching, and with a loud voice read the writing drawn up by them, in which 
was a confession that I really deserved to die a thousand times for what I had done ; 
namely, for my breaches of the sabbath, and for my abandonment of the faith, which 
I had broken so far as even by my words to hinder others from embracing Judaism, 
&c. After I had got through with the reading, I came down from the platform, and 
the right reverend ruler of the synagogue drew near to me, and whispered in my ear 
that I must turn aside to a certain corner of the synagogue. Accordingly, I went to 
the corner, and the porter told me to strip. I then stripped my body as low as my 
waist, — bound a handkerchief about my head, — took off my shoes, and raised my 
arms, holding fast with my hands to a sort of post. The porter of the synagogue, or 
sexton, then came up, and with a bandage tied up my hands to the post. When 
things had been thus arranged, the clerk drew near, and taking the cowskin, struck 
my sides with thirty-nine blows, according to the tradition ; while in the mean time 
a psalm was chanted. After this was over, the preacher approached, and absolved 
me from excommunication ; and thus was the gate of heaven opened to me, which 
before was shut against me with the strongest bars, keeping me entirely out. I next 
put on my clothes, went to the threshold of the synagogue, and laid myself down on 
it, while the porter held up my head. Then all who came down stepped over me, 
boys as well as old men, lifting up one foot and stepping over the lower part of my 
legs. When the last had passed out, I got up, and being covered with dust by him 
who helped me, went home.' This story, though rather tediously minute in its 
disgusting particulars, it was yet thought worth while to copy, because this compara- 
tively modern scene seemed to give, to the life, the old fashion of ' scourging in the 
synagogue. 5 " (Witsius, i. 20, 21.) 

HIS JOURNEY TO DAMASCUS 

Thus equipped with the high commission and letters of the su- 
preme court of the Jewish nation, Saul, breathing out threatenings 
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went on his way 
to Damascus, where the sanction of his superiors would have the 
force of despotic law, against the destined victims of his cruelty. 
The distance from Jerusalem to this great Syrian city, can not 



496 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

be less than two hundred and fifty or three hundred miles, and 
the journey must therefore have occupied as many as ten or twelve 
days, according to the usual rate of traveling in those countries. 
On this long journey, therefore, Saul had much season for re- 
flexion. There were, indeed, several persons in his company, but 
probably they were only persons of an inferior order, and merely 
the attendents necessary for his safety and speed in traveling. 
Among these therefore he would not be likely to find any person 
with whom he could maintain any sympathy which could enable 
them to hold much conversation together, and he must therefore 
have been left through most of the time to the solitary enjoyment 
of his own thoughts. In the midst of the peculiar fatigues of an 
eastern journey, he must have had many seasons of bodily ex- 
haustion and consequent mental depression, when the fire of his 
unholy and exterminating zeal would grow languid, and the pain- 
ful doubts which always come in at such dark seasons, to chill the 
hopes of every great mind, — no matter what may be the character 
of the enterprise, — must have had the occasional effect of exciting 
repentant feelings in him. Why had he left the high and sacred 
pursuits of a literary and religious life, in the refined capital of 
Judaism, to endure the fatigues of a long journey over rugged 
mountains and sandy deserts, through rivers and under a burning 
sun, to a distant city, in a strange land, among those who were 
perfect strangers to him? It was for the sole object of carrying 
misery and anguish among those whose only crime was the belief 
of a doctrine which he hated, because it warred against that so- 
lemn system of forms and traditions to which he so zealously 
clung, with all the energy that early and inbred prejudice could 
inspire. But in these seasons of weariness and depression, would 
now occasionally arise some chilling doubt about the certain recti- 
tude of the stern course which he had been pursuing, in a heat 
that seldom allowed him time for reflexion on its possible character 
and tendency. Might not that faith against which he was war- 
ring with such devotedness, be true ? — that faith which, amid blood 
and dying agonies, the martyr Stephen had witnessed with his very 
last breath? At these times of doubt and despondency would 
perhaps arise the remembrance of that horrible scene, when he 
had set by, a calm spectator, drinking in with delight the agonies 
of the martyr, and learning from the ferocity of the murderers, 
new lessons of cruelty, to be put in practice against others who 
should thus adhere to the faith of Christ. No doubt, too, an oc- 



saul. 497 

casional shudder of gloom and remorse for such acts would creep 
over him in the chill of evening, or in the heat- of noonday, and 
darken all his schemes of active vengeance against the brethren. 
But still he journeyed northward, and each hour brought him 
nearer the scene of long-planned cruelty. On the last day of his 
wearisome journey, he at length drew near the city, just at noon ; 
and from the terms in which his situation is described, it is not 
unreasonable to conclude that he was just coming in sight of Da- 
mascus, when the event happened which revolutionized his pur- 
poses, hopes, character, soul, and his whole existence through 
eternity, — an event connected with the salvation of millions that 
no man can yet number. 

Descending from the northeastern slope of Hermon, over whose 
mighty range his last day's journey had conducted him, Saul came 
along the course of the Abana, to the last hill which overlooks the 
distant city. Here Damascus bursts upon the traveler's view, in 
the midst of a mighty plain, embosomed in gardens, and orchards, 
and groves, which, with the long known and still bright streams 
of Abana and Pharphar, and the golden flood of the Chrysorrhoas, 
give the spot the name of " one of the four paradises." So lovely 
and charming is the sight which this fair city has in all ages pre- 
sented to the traveler's view, that the Turks relate that their pro- 
phet, coming near Damascus, took his station on the mountain 
Salehiyeh, on the west of the hill-girt plain in which the city 
stands ; and as he thence viewed the glorious and beautiful spot, 
encompassed with gardens for thirty miles, and thickly set with 
domes and steeples, over which the eye glances as far as it can 
reach,— considering the ravishing beauty of the place, he would 
not tempt his frailty by entering into it,- but instantly turned away 
with this reflexion : that there was but one paradise designed for 
man, and, for his part, he was resolved not to take his, in this 
world. And though there is not the slightest foundation for such 
a story, because the prophet never came near to Damascus, nor 
had an opportunity of entering into it, yet the conspiring testimony 
of modern travelers justifies the fable, in the impression it conveys 
of the surpassing loveliness of the view from this very spot, — 
called the Arch of Victory, from an unfinished mass of stonework, 
which here crowns the mountain's top. This spot has been marked 
by a worthless tradition, as the scene of Saul's conversion; and 
the locality is made barely probable, by the much better authority 
65 



498 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

of the circumstance, that it accords. with the sacred narrative, in 

being on the road from Jerusalem, and " nigh unto the city." 

" Damascus is a very ancient city, which the oldest records and traditions show by 
their accordant testimony to have been founded by Uz, the son of Aram, and grand- 
son of Shem. It was the capital or mother city of that Syria which is distinguished 
by the name of Aram Dammesek, or Damascene Syria, lying between Libanus and 
Anti-Libanus. The city stands at the base of Mount Hermon, from which descend 
the famous streams of Abana and Pharphar ; the latter washing the walls of the city, 
while the former cuts it through the middle. It was a very populous, delightful, and 
wealthy place; but as in the course of its existence it had suffered a variety of for- 
tune, so it had often changed masters. To pass over its earlier history, we will only 
observe, that before the Christian era, on the defeat of Tigranes, the Armenian mon- 
arch, it was yielded to the Romans, being taken by the armies of Pompey. In the 
time of Paul, as we are told in Corinthians xi. 32, it was held under the (temporary) 
sway of Aretas, a king of the Arabians, father-in-law of Herod the tetrarch. It had 
then a large Jewish population, as we may gather from the fact, that in the reign of 
Nero, 10,000 of that nation were slaughtered, unarmed, and in the public baths, by 
the Damascenes, as Josephus records in his history of the Jewish War, II. Book, 
chap. 25. Among the Jews of Damascus, also, were a considerable number of 
Christians, and it was raging for the destruction of these, that Saul, furnished with 
the letters and commission of the Jewish high priest, now flew like a hawk upon the 
doves." (Witsius, § ii. IT 1.) 

The sacred narrative gives no particulars of the other circum- 
stances connected with this remarkable event, in either of the three 
statements presented in different parts of the book of Acts. All 
that is commemorated, is, that at mid-day, as Saul with his com- 
pany drew near to Damascus, he saw a light exceeding the sun in 
brightness, which flashed upon them from heaven, and struck 
them all to the earth. And while they were all fallen to the 
ground, Saul alone heard a voice speaking to him in the Hebrew 
tongue, and saying — " Saul ! Saul ! Why persecutest thou me 7 It 
is hard for thee to kick against thorns.'' To this, Saul asked, in 
reply — " Who art thou, Lord V* The answer was — " I am Jesus 
the ZSazarene, whom thou persecutest." Saul, trembling and as- 
tonished, replied — u Lord, what wilt thou that I should do ?" And 
the voice said — " Rise and stand upon thy feet, and go into the 
city ; there thou shalt be told what to do, since for this purpose I 
have appeared to thee, to make use of thee as a minister and a 
witness, both of what thou hast seen and of what I will cause 
thee to see, — choosing thee out of the people, and of the heathen 
nations to whom I now send thee, — to open their eyes, — to turn 
them from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan unto 
God, that they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance 
among them that are sanctified, by faith in me;' 

These words are given thus fully only in Saul's own account of his conversion, in 
his address to king Agrippa. (Acts xxvi. 14 — 18.) The original Greek of verse 
17, is most remarkably and expressively significant, containing, beyond all doubt, 
the formal commission" of Saul as the " Apostle of the Gentiles." The first word 
in that verse is translated in the common English version, " delivering ;" whereas, 



saul. 499 

the original, Efripofyiwos, means also " taking out," " choosing ;" and is clearly shown 
by Bretschneider, sub voc. in numerous references to the usages of the Alexandrine 
translators, and by Kuinoel, in loc, to bear this latter meaning here. Rosenmiiller 
and others, however, have been led, by the circumstance that Hesychius gives the 
meaning of " rescue." to prefer that. Rosenmuller's remark, that the context demands 
this meaning, is, however, certainly unauthorized ; for, on this same ground, Kuinoel 
bases the firmest support of the meaning of " choice." The meaning of (f rescue" 
was indeed the only one formerly received, but the lights of modern exegesis have 
added new distinctness and aptness to the passage, by the meaning adopted above. 
Beza, Piscator, Pagninus, Arias Montanus, Castalio, &c, as well as the Oriental 
versions, are all quoted by Poole in defense of the common rendering, nor does he 
seem to know of the sense now received. But Saul was truly chosen, both "out of 
the people" of Israel, (because he was a Jew by birth and religion,) " and out of the 
heathen," (because he was born and brought up among the Grecians, and therefore 
was taken out from among them, as a minister of grace to them,) and the whole pas- 
sage is thus shown to be most beautifully just to the circumstances which so eminently 
fitted him for his Gentile apostleship. The Greek verb used in the conclusion of the 
passage, is the consecrating word, airoorriWcj, (aposlello,) and makes up the formula of 
his apostolic commission, which is there given in language worthy of the vast and 
eternal scope of the sense, — words fit to be spoken from heaven, in thunder, amid the 
flash of lightnings, that called the bloody-minded, bitter, maddened persecutor, to the 
peaceful, devoted, unshrinking testimony of the cause, against the friends of which he 
before breathed only threatenings and slaughter. 

All this took place while the whole company of travelers were 
lying prostrate on the ground, stunned, and almost senseless. Of 
all those present, however, Saul only heard these solemn words of 
warning, command, and prophecy, thus sent from heaven in thun- 
der ; for he himself afterwards, in narrating these awful events 
before the Jewish multitude, expressly declares, " the men that were 
with me, saw the light, indeed, and were afraid ; but they heard 
not the voice of him who spoke to me." And though in the pre- 
vious statement given by Luke, in the regular course of the nar- 
rative, it is said that " the men who journeyed with Saul were 
speechless, — hearing a voice, but seeing no man ;" yet the two 
statements are clearly reconciled by the consideration of the differ- 
ent meanings of the word translated " voice" in both passages, but 
which the accompanying expressions sufficiently limit in the latter 
case only to the articulate sounds of a human voice, while in the 
former it is left in such terms as to mean merely a " sound," as of 
thunder, or any thing else which can be supposed to agree best 
with the other circumstances. To them, therefore, it seemed only 
surprising, not miraculous ; for they are not mentioned as being 
impressed, otherwise than by fear and amazement, while Saul, who 
alone heard the words, was moved thereby to a complete conver- 
sion. The whole circumstances, therefore, allow and require, in 
accordance with other similar passages, that the material phe- 
nomena which were made the instruments of this miraculous con- 
version, were as they are described, first, a flash of light from the 
sky, which struck the company to the earth, giving all a severe 



.500 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

shock, but affecting Saul most of all, and second^ a tremendous 
noise accompanying the flash, heard only as such by all, except 
Saul, who distinguished in those awful, repeated sounds, the words 
of a heavenly voice, with which he held distinct converse, while 
his wondering companions thought him only muttering incohe- 
rently to himself, between the peals of the noise ; — just as in the 
passage related by John, when Jesus called to God — " Father ! 
glorify thy name ;" and then there came a voice from heaven, say- 
ing — " I both have glorified it and will glorify it ;" yet the people 
who then stood by, said — " It thundered" — having no idea of the 
expressive utterance which was so distinctly heard by Jesus and 
his disciples. The sequel of the effects, too, are such as would 
naturally follow these material agencies. The men who were 
least stunned, rose to their feet soon after the first shock ; and when 
the awful scene was over, they bestirred themselves to lift up Saul, 
who was now found, not only speechless, but blind, — the eyes 
being so dazzled by such excess of light, that, as is well known 
in similar cases, the nerve loses all its power, generally, for ever. 
Saul being now raised from the ground, was led, helpless and 
thunder-struck, by his distressed attendents, into the city, which 
he had hoped to make the scene of his cruel persecutions, but 
which he now entered, more surely bound, than could have been 
the most wretched of his destined captives. 

Kuinoel and Bloomfield will furnish the inquiring reader with the amusing details 
of the hypotheses, by which some of the moderns have attempted to explain away 
the whoie of Saul's conversion, into a mere remarkable succession of natural occur- 
rences, without any miracle at all. 

The date of Saul's conversion is a point much mooted among the chronologists. 
Baronius fixes it in A. D, 36, (corrected by Pagi to A, D. 34,) in the twentieth year 
of Tiberius, (corrected by Pagi to the twenty-first,} two years after the crucifixion, 
and a little more than one year after Stephen's death. "Cave says A. D. 33. (Hist. 
Lit.) Pearson and Usher, with many others, prefer A. D. 35, — of Tiberius 22. Eu- 
sebius (Chron.) places it in Tiberius 23. Louis Cappell in A. D. 38, which he 
reckons the fifth from the crucifixion, and the second of Caligula's reign. Spanheim, 
followed by Witsius, decides in favor of A. D. 40, the fourth of Caligula, the seventh 
from the crucifixion. Schmidt {Chron. Apost. in Keil. & Tsehirner Analect. quoted 
by Hemsen) takes A. D. 41. But Bengel (Ord. temp.) is quoted as fixing this event 
in A. D. 31, just ten years earlier than the date last quoted. So, as Hemsen well re- 
marks — " there is from A. D. 31 to A. D. 41 hardly a year in which the conversion 
of Paul has not been placed." Hemsen gives the fullest and best view that I have 
ever seen of this chronological question; and the arguments on which he rests his 
conclusions are so new, and so little noticed by any other writer, that his opinion is 
entitled to the highest regard. He connects the date with the conquest of Damascus 
by Aretas, (2 Cor. xi. 32,) — a point which can be nearly fixed, by a reference to con- 
temporary heathen annals. On this valuable ground Hemsen, after a full discussion, 
bases the conclusion that A. D. 36 was the year of Saul's conversion. (Hemsen's 
Apostel Paulus, i. cap. Anhang. pp. 16—23.) This is the best article that I know of, 
pn this subject; but to some parts of his opinion as to the time of Paul's flight into 
Arabia I must object. Neander coincides with Hemsen. ( Apostelg. iii. 1, pp. 80, 81 ,) 



SAUL. 501 

HIS STAY IN DAMASCUS. 

Thus did the commissioned persecutor enter the ancient capital 
of Aram. But as they led him along the flowery ways into this 
Syrian paradise, how vain were its splendors, its beauties, and its 
historic glories, to the eyes which had so long strained over the 
far horizon, to catch the first gleam of its white towers and rosy 
gardens beyond the mountain-walls. In vain did Damascus invite 
the admiring gaze of the passing traveler, to those damask roses, 
embowering and hedging his path, which take their name in mo- 
dern times from the gardens where they first bloomed under 
the hand of man. In vain did their fragrance woo his nobler 
sense to perceive their beauty of form and hue ; in vain did the 
long line of palaces and towers and temples, still bright in the 
venerable splendor of the ancient Aramaic kings, rise in majesty 
before him. The eyes that had so often dwelt on these historical 
monuments, in the distant and brilliant fancies of studious youth, 
were now closed to the not less brilliant splendors of the reality ; 
and through the ancient arches of those mighty gates, and along 
the crowded streets, amid the noise of bustling thousands, the com- 
missioned minister of wrath now moved, distressed, darkened, 
speechless, and horror-struck, — marked, like the first murderer, (of 
whose crime that spot was the fabled scene,) by the hand of God. 
The hand of God was indeed on him, not in wrath, but in mercy, 
sealing his abused bodily vision for a short space, until his mental 
eyes, purified from the scales of prejudice and unholy zeal, should 
have become fitted for the perception of objects, whose beauty and 
glory should be the theme of his thoughts and words, through all 
his later days, and of his discourse to millions for whom his heart 
now felt no love, but for whose salvation he was destined to freely 
spend and offer up his life. Passing along the crowded ways of 
the great city, under the guidance of his attendents, he was at 
last led into the street, which for its regularity was called the 
"Straight Way," and there was lodged in the house of a per- 
son named Judas, — remaining for three days in utter darkness, 
without the presence of a single friend, and without the glimmer 
of a hope that he should ever again see the light of day. Dis- 
consolate and desolate, he passed the whole of this period in fast- 
ing, without one earthly object or call, to distract his attention 
from the solemn themes of his heavenly vision. He had all this 
long interval for reflexion on the strange reversion of destiny 



502 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

pointed out by this indisputable decree, which summoned him 
from works of cruelty and destruction, to deeds of charity, kind- 
ness, and devotion, to those whose ruin he had lately sought with 
his whole heart. At the close of this season of lonely but blessed 
meditation, a new revelation of the commanding presence of the 
Deity was made to a humble and devout Christian of Damascus, 
named Ananias, known even among the Jews as a man of blame- 
less character. To him, in a vision, the Lord appeared, and call- 
ing him by name, directed him most minutely to the house where 
Saul was lodging, and gave him the miraculous commission of 
restoring to sight that same Saul, now deprived of this sense by 
the visitation of God, but expecting its restoration by the hands of 
Ananias himself, who, though yet unknown to him in the body, had 
been distinctly seen in a vision by the blind sufferer, as his healer, 
in the name of that Jesus who had met him in the way and smote 
him with this blindness, dazzling him with the excess of his un- 
veiled heavenly glories. Ananias, yet appalled by the startling 
view of the bright messenger, and doubting the nature of the 
vision which summoned him to a duty so strangely inconsistent 
with the dreadful fame and character of the person named as the 
subject of his miraculous ministrations, hesitated to promise obedi- 
ence, and parleyed with his summoner. " Lord ! I have heard by 
many of this man, how much evil he has done to thy saints at 
Jerusalem ; and here, he has commission from the chief priests to 
bind all that call on thy name." The merciful Lord, not resent- 
ing the rational doubts of his devout but alarmed servant, replied 
in words of considerate explanation, renewing his charge, with 
assurances of the safe and hopeful accomplishment of his appointed 
task. " Go thy way : for he is a chosen instrument of mercy for 
me, to bear my name before nations and kings, and the children 
of Israel : for I will show him how great things he must surfer for 
the sake of my name." Ananias, no longer doubting, now went 
his way as directed, and rinding Saul, clearly addressed him in 
terms of confidence and even of affection, recognizing him, on the 
testimony of the vision, as already a friend of those companions 
of Jesus whom he had lately persecuted. He put his hands on 
him, in the usual form of invoking a blessing on any one, and 
said — " Brother Saul ! the Lord Jesus, who appeared to thee in the 
way, as thou earnest, has sent me, that thou mightest receive thy 
sight, and be filled with a holy spirit." And immediately there 
fell from the eyes of the blinded persecutor, something like scales, 



saul. 503 

and he saw now, in bodily, real presence, him who had already 
been in form revealed to his spirit, in a vision. At the same mo- 
ment, fell from his inward sense, the obscuring film of prejudice 
and bigotry. Renewed in mental vision, he saw with the clear 
eye of confiding faith and eternal hope, that Jesus, who in the full 
revelation of his vindictive majesty having dazzled and blinded 
him in his murderous career, now appeared to his purified sense 
in the tempered rays and mild effulgence of redeeming grace. 
Changed, too, in the whole frame of his mind, he felt no more the 
promptings of that dark spirit of cruelty, but filled with a spirit, 
before unknown to him, he began a new existence, replete with 
the energies of a divine influence. No longer fasting in token of 
distress, he now ate, by way of thanksgiving for his joyful resto- 
ration, and was strengthened thereby for the great task which he 
had undertaken. He was now admitted to the fellowship of the 
disciples of Jesus, and remained many days among them as a 
brother, mingling in the most friendly intercourse with those very 
persons against whom he came to wage exterminating ruin. Nor 
did he confine his actions in his new character to the privacies of 
Christian intercourse. Going immediately into the synagogues, 
he there publicly proclaimed his belief in Jesus Christ, and boldly 
maintained him to be the Son of God. Great was the amazement 
of all who heard him. The fame of Saul of Tarsus, as a fero- 
cious and determined persecutor of those who professed the faith of 
Jesus, had already pervaded Palestine, and spread into Syria ; and 
what did this strange display now mean? They saw him, whom 
they had thus known by his dreadful reputation as a hater and 
exterminator of the Nazarene doctrine, now preaching it in the 
schools of the Jewish law and the houses of worship for the ad- 
herents of Mosaic forms, and with great power persuading others 
to a similar renunciation of all opposition to the name of Jesus ; 
and they said — " Is not this he who destroyed them that called on 
this name in Jerusalem, and came hither, with the very purpose 
of taking them bound, to the Sanhedrim, for punishment V- But 
Saul, each day advancing in the knowledge and faith of the Chris- 
tian doctrine, soon grew too strong in argument for the most skil- 
ful of the defenders of the Jewish faith ; and utterly confounded 
them with his proofs that Jesus was the very Messiah. This tri- 
umphant course he followed for a long time ; until, at last, the 
stubborn Jews, provoked to the highest degree by the defeats which 
they had suffered from this powerful disputant, lately their most 



504 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

zealous defender, took counsel to put him to death, as a renegade 
from the faith, of which he had been the trusted professor, as well 
as the commissioned minister of its vengeance on the heretics 
whose cause he had now espoused, and was defending, to the great 
injury and discredit of the Judaical order. In contriving the 
means of executing this scheme, they received the support and 
assistence of the government of the city, — Damascus being then 
held, not by the Romans, but by Aretas, a petty king of northern 
Arabia. The governor appointed by Aretas, did not scruple to 
aid the Jews in their murderous project ; but even himself, with a 
detachment of the city garrison, kept watch at the gates, to kill 
Saul at his first outgoing. But all their wicked plots were set at 
nought by a very simple contrivance. The Christian friends of 
Saul, hearing of the danger, determined to remove him from it at 
once ; and accordingly, one night, put the destined apostle of the 
Gentiles in a basket ; and through the window of some one of 
their houses, which adjoined the wall of the city, they let him 
down outside of the barriers, while the spiteful Jews, with the 
complaisant governor and his detachment of the city guard, were 
to no purpose watching the gates with unceasing resolution, to 
wreak their vengeance on this dangerous convert. 

Michaelis alludes to the difficulties which have arisen about the possession of Da- 
mascus by Aretas, and concludes as follows : 

" The force of these objections has been considerably weakened, in a dissertation 
published in 1775, ' De ethnarcha Aretae Arabum regis Paulo insidiante,' by J. G. 
Heyne, who has shown it to be highly probable, first, that Aretas, against whom the 
Romans, not long before the death of Tiberius, made a declaration of war, which 
they neglected to put in execution, took the opportunity of seizing Damascus, which 
had once belonged to his ancestors; an event omitted in Josephus, as forming no part 
of the Jewish history, and by the Roman historians, as being a matter not flattering in 
itself, and belonging only to a distant province. Secondly, that Aretas was by reli- 
gion a Jew, — a circumstance the more credible, when we reflect that Judaism had 
been widely propagated in that country, and that even kings in Arabia Felix had re- 
cognized the law of Moses. * ***** And hence we may 
explain the reason why the Jews were permitted to exercise, in Damascus, persecu- 
tions still severer than those in Jerusalem, where the violence of their zeal was awed 
by the moderation of the Roman policy. Of this we find an example in the ninth 
chapter of the Acts, where Paul is sent by the high priest to Damascus, to exercise 
against the Christians, cruelties which the return of the Roman governor had check- 
ed in Judea. These accounts agree likewise with what is related in Josephus, that 
the number of Jews in Damascus amounted to ten thousand, and that almost all the 
women, even those whose husbands were heathens, were of the Jewish religion." 
(Michael. Introd. Vol. IV. Part I. c. ii. § 12.) 

Acts ix. 22 — 24. — " In 2 Cor. ix. 32, we read that the Ethnarch of Aretas, king of 
Arabia, had placed a guard at the gates of Damascus, to seize Paul. Now it appears 
that Syria Damascene was, at the end of the Mithridatic war, reduced by Pompey to 
the Roman yoke. It has therefore been inquired, how it could happen that Aretas 
should then have the government, and appoint an Ethnarch. That Aretas had, on 
account of the repudiation of his daughter by Herod Antipas, commenced hostilities 
against that monarch, and in the last year of Tiberius (A. D. 37) had completely de- 
feated his army, we learn from Joseph. Ant. 18, 5, 1. seqq. Herod had, we 'find, 



SAUL. 505 

signified this by letter to Tiberius, who, indignant at this audacity, (Joseph. L. c.,) 
gave orders to Vitellius, prefect of Syria, to declare war against Aretas, and take 
him alive, or send him his head. Vitellius made preparations for the war, but on 
receiving a message acquainting him with the death of Tiberius, he dismissed his 
troops into winter quarters. And thus Aretas was delivered from the danger. At 
the time, however, that Vitellius drew off his forces, Aretas invaded Syria, seized 
Damascus, and continued to occupy it, in spite of Tiberius's stupid successor, Ca- 
ligula. This is the opinion of most commentators, and among others, Wolf, Mi- 
chaelis, and Eichhorn. But I have already shown in the Proleg. § de chronologia lib. 
2, 3, that Aretas did not finally subdue Damascus until Vitellius had already depart- 
ed from the province." Kuinoel. (Bloomfield's Annotations, Vol. IV. pp. 322 — 324.) 

HIS RESIDENCE IN ARABIA. 

On his escape from this murderous plot, Saul, having now re- 
ceived from God, who called him by his grace, the revelation of 
his Son, that he might preach him among the heathen, immediately 
resolved not to confer with any mortal, on the subject of his task, 
and therefore refrained from going up to Jerusalem, to visit those 
who were apostles before him. Turning his course southeastward, 
he found refuge from the rage of the Damascan Jews, in the soli- 
tudes of the eastern deserts, where, free alike from the persecutions 
and the corruptions of the city, he sought in meditation and lonely 
study, that diligent preparation which was necessary for the high 
ministry to which God had so remarkably called him. A long 
time was spent by him in this wise and profitable seclusion ; but 
the exact period cannot be ascertained. It is only probable that 
more than a year was thus occupied ; during which he was not a 
mere hermit, indeed, but at any rate, was a resident in a region 
destitute of most objects which would be apt to draw off his atten- 
tion from study. That part of Arabia in which he took, refuge, 
was not a mere desert, nor a wilderness, yet had very few towns, 
and those only of a small size, with hardly any inhabitants of such 
a character as to be attractive companions to Saul. After some 
time, changes having taken place in the government of Damascus, 
he was enabled to return thither with safety, the Jews being now 
checked in their persecuting cruelty by the re-establishment of the 
Roman dominion over that part of Syria. He did not remain there 
long ; but having again displayed himself as a bold assertor of the 
faith of Jesus, he next set his face towards Jerusalem, on his re- 
turn, to make known in the halls of those who had sent him forth 
to deeds of blood, that their commission had been reversed by the 
Father of all spirits, who had now not only summoned, but fully 
equipped, their destined minister of wrath, to be " a chosen instru- 
ment of mercy" to nations who had never yet heard of Israel's God. 

The different accounts given of these events, in Acts ix. 19 — 25, and in Galatians 
66 



506 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

i. 15—24, as well as 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33, have been united in very opposite ways by dif- 
ferent commentators, and form the most perplexing passages in the life of Saul. The 
journey into Arabia, of which he speaks in Galatians i. 17, is supposed by most wri- 
ters to have been made during the time when Luke mentions him as occupied in and 
about Damascus ; and it is said that he went thence into Arabia immediately after his 
conversion, before he had preached anywhere ; and such writers maintain that the 
word "straightway" or "immediately" in Acts ix. 20, (evQew,) really means, that it 
was not until a long time after his conversion that he preached in the synagogues ! 
Into this remarkable opinion they have been led by the fact, that Saul himself says, 
(Galat. i. 16,) that when he was called by God to the apostleship, " immediately he 
conferred not with flesh and blood, nor went up to Jerusalem, but went into Arabia." 
All this, however, is evidently specified by him only in reference to the point that he 
did not derive his title to the apostleship from " those that were apostles before him," 
nor from any human authority ; and full "justice is therefore done to his words, by 
applying them only to the fact, that he went to Arabia before he went to Jerusalem, 
without supposing them to mean that he left Damascus immediately after his baptism 
by Ananias. All the historical writers, however, seem to take this latter view. 
Witsius, Cappel, Pearson, Lardner, Murdock, Hemsen, &c, place his journey to 
Arabia between his baptism and the time of his escape, and suppose that when he fled 
from Damascus, he went directly to Jerusalem. In the different arrangement which 
I make of these events, however, I find myself supported by most of the great exegeti- 
cal writers, as Wolf, Kuinoel, and Bloomfield ; and I cannot better support this view 
than in the words of the two latter. 

Acts ix. 19. — " Paul (Galat. i. 17) relates that he, after his conversion, did not pro- 
ceed to Jerusalem, but repaired to Arabia, and from thence returned to Damascus. 
Hence, according to the opinion of Pearson, in his Annal. Paul. p. 2, the words 
iyevero 61 b HavXos are to be separated from the preceding passage, and constitute a new 
story, in which is related what happened at Damascus after Saul's return from Arabia. 
But the words IkclihxI vfiipai may and ought to be referred to the whole time of Paul's 
abode at Damascus, before he went into Arabia ; and thus with the iKavai h^pai be 
numbered the hy^pa-i nw, mentioned at ver. 19; for the sense of the words is this: 
'Saul, when he spent some days with the Damascene Christians, immediately taught 
in the synagogues. Now Luke entirely passes by Paul's journey into Arabia. 
(Kuin.) Doddridge imagines that his going into Arabia, (to which, as he observes, 
Damascus now belonged,) was only making excursions from that city into the neigh- 
boring parts of the country, and perhaps taking a large circuit about it, which might 
be his employment between the time in which he began to preach in Damascus, and 
his quitting it after having been conquered by the Romans under Pompey.' But in 
view of this subject I cannot agree with him. The country in the neighborhood of 
Damascus is not properly Arabia" (Bloomfield's Annotations on the New Testa- 
ment, vol. IV. p. 322.) 

HIS RETURN TO JERUSALEM. 

Arriving in the city, whence only three years before he had set 
out, in a frame of mind so different from that in which he return- 
ed, and with a purpose so opposite to his present views and plans, 
— he immediately, with all the confidence of Christian faith, and 
ardent love for those to whom his religious sympathies now so 
closely fastened him, assayed to mingle in a familiar and friendly 
manner with the apostolic company, and offered himself to their 
Christian fellowship as a devout believer in Jesus. But they, 
already having too well known him in his previous character as 
the persecutor of their brethren, the aider and abettor in the murder 
of the heroic and innocent Stephen, and the greatest enemy of the 
faithful, — very decidedly repulsed his advances, as only a new 
trick to involve them in difficulties, that would make them liable 






SAUI-. 507 

to punishment, which their prudence had before enabled them to 
escape. They therefore altogether refused to receive Saul ; for 
'-'- they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a dis- 
ciple." In this disagreeable condition, — cast out as a hypocrite 
by the apostles of that faith, for which he had sacrificed all earthly 
prospects, — he was fortunately found by Barnabas, who being, like 
Saul, a Hellenist Jew, naturally felt some special sympathy with 
one whose country was within a few miles of his own ; and by 
this circumstance, being induced to notice the professed convert, 
soon recognized in him the indubitable signs of a regenerated and 
sanctified spirit, and therefore brought him to the chief apostles, 
Peter and James, the Lord's brother ; for with these alone did 
Saul commune, at this visit, as he himself distinctly testifies. Still 
avoiding the company of the great mass of the apostles and disci- 
ples, he confined himself almost wholly to the acquaintance of 
Peter, with whom he abode in close familiarity for fifteen days. 
In order to reconcile the narrative of Luke in the Acts, with the 
account given by Saul himself, in the first chapter of the epistle to 
the Galatians, it must be understood that the u apostles" spoken of 
by the former are only the two above-mentioned, and it was with 
these only that he " went in and out at Jerusalem," — the other 
apostles being probably absent on some missionary duties among 
the new churches throughout Judea and Palestine. Imitating the 
spirit of the proto-martyr, whose death he had himself been in- 
strumental in effecting, " he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and disputed against the Hellenists," doubtless the very same 
persons among whom he himself had formerly been enrolled as an 
unshrinking opposer of that faith which he was now advocating. 
By them he was received with all that vindictive hate which might 
have been expected ; and he was at once denounced as a vile rene- 
gade from the cause which in his best days he had maintained as 
the only right one. To show most satisfactorily that, though he 
might change, they had not done so, they directly resolved to pun- 
ish the bold disowner of the faith of his fathers, and would soon 
have crowned him with the fate of Stephen, had not the disciples 
heard of the danger which threatened the life of their new brother, 
and provided for his escape by means not less efficient than those 
before used in his behalf, at Damascus. Before the plans for his 
destruction could be completed, they privately withdrew him from 
Jerusalem, and had him safely conducted down to Caesarea, on 
the coast, whence, with little delay, he was shipped for some of 



508 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the northern parts of Syria, from which he found his way to Tar- 
sus, — whether by land or sea, is unknown. 

HIS VISIT TO TARSUS. 

This return to his native city was probably the first visit which 
he had made to it, since the day when he departed from his fa- 
ther's house, to go to Jerusalem as a student of Jewish theology. 
It must therefore have been the occasion of many interesting re- 
flexions and reminiscences. What changes had the events of that 
interval wrought in him — in his faith, his hopes, his views, his 
purposes for life and for death ! The objects which were then to 
him as idols, — the aims and ends of his being, — had now no place 
in his reverence or his affection ; but in their stead was now 
placed a name and a theme, of which he could hardly have heard 
before he first left Tarsus, — and a cause whose triumph would be 
the overthrow of all those traditions of the Fathers, of which he 
had been taught to be so exceedingly zealous. To this new cause 
he now devoted himself, and probably at this time labored " in the 
regions of Cilicia," until a new apostolic summons called him to a 
distant field. He was yet " personally unknown to the churches 
of Judea, which were in Christ ; and they had only heard, that he 
who persecuted them in times past, now preached the faith which 
once he destroyed ; they therefore glorified God on his account." 
The very beginnings of his apostolic duties were therefore in a 
foreign field, and not within the original premises of the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel, where indeed he was not even known but 
by fame, except to a few in Jerusalem. In this he showed the 
great scope and direction of his future labors, — among the Gentiles, 
not among the Jews ; leaving the latter to the sole care of the 
original apostles, while he turned to a vast field, for which they 
were in no way fitted, by nature, or by apostolic education, nor 
were destined in the great scheme of salvation. 

HIS APOSTOLIC LABORS IN ANTIOCH. 

During this retirement of Saul to his native home, the first 
great call of the Gentiles had been made through the summons of 
Simon Peter to Cornelius. There was manifest wisdom in this 
arrangement of events. Though the original apostles were plainly 
never intended, by providence, to labor to any great extent in the 
Gentile field, yet it was most manifestly proper that the first open- 
ing of this new field should be made by those directly and per- 



SAUL. 



609 



sonally commissioned by Jesus himself, and who, from having en- 
joyed his bodily presence for so long a time, would be considered 
best qualified to judge of the propriety of a movement so novel 
and unprecedented in its character. The great apostolic chief was 
therefore made the first minister of grace to the Gentiles ; and the 
violent opposition with which this innovation on Judaical sanctity 
was received by the more bigoted, could, of course, be much more 
efficiently met, and disarmed, by the apostle specially commissioned 
as the keeper of the keys of the heavenly kingdom, than by one 
who had been but lately a persecutor of the faithful, and who, by 
his birth and partial education in a Grecian city, had acquired 
such a familiarity with Gentile usages, as to be reasonably liable 
to suspicion, in regard to an innovation which so remarkably fa- 
vored them. This great movement having been thus made by 
the highest Christian authority on earth, — and the controversy im- 
mediately resulting having been thus decided, — the way was now 
fully open for the complete extension of the gospel to the heathen, 
and Saul was therefore immediately called, in providence, from 
his retirement, to take up the work of evangelizing Syria, which 
had already been partially begun at Antioch, by some of the Hel- 
lenistic refugees from the persecution at the time of Stephen's 
martyrdom. The apostles at Jerusalem, hearing of the success 
which attended these incidental efforts, dispatched their trusty 
brother Barnabas, to confirm the good work, under the direct com- 
mission of apostolic authority. He, having come to Antioch, re- 
joiced his heart with the sight of the success which had crowned 
the work of those who, in the midst of the personal distress of a 
malignant persecution, that had driven them from Jerusalem, had 
there sown a seed that was already bringing forth glorious fruits. 
Perceiving the immense importance of the field there opened, he 
immediately felt the want of some person of different qualifications 
from the original apostles, and one whose education and habits 
would fit him not only to labor among the professors of the Jew- 
ish faith, but also to communicate the doctrines of Christ to the 
Grecians. In this crisis, he bethought himself of the wonder- 
ful young convert with whom he had become acquainted, under 
such remarkable circumstances, a few years before, in Jerusalem, 
— whose daring zeal and masterly learning had been so signally 
manifested among the Hellenists, with whom he had formerly been 
associated as an equally active persecutor. Inspired both by con- 
siderations of personal regard, and by wise convictions of the pe- 



510 l.l\Li oF THt; APuSTLK^. 

cuiiar fitness of this zealous disciple for the field now opened in 

Syria, Barnabas immediately left his apostolic charge at Antioch, 

and went over to Tarsus, to invite Saul to this great labor. The 

journey was but a short one, the distance by water being not more 

than one hundred miles, and by land, around through the " Syrian 

gates," about one hundred and fifty. He therefore soon arrived at 

Saul's home, and found him ready and willing to undertake the 

proposed apostolic duty. They immediately returned together 

to Antioch, and earnestly devoted themselves to their interesting 

labors. 

" Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, was built, according to some authors, by Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes; others affirm, by Seleucus Nicanor, the first king of Syria after 
Alexander the Great, in memory of his father Antiochus, and was the ' royal seat 
of the kings of Syria.' For power and dignity, Strabo (lib. xvi. p. 517) says it was 
not much inferior to Seleucia, or Alexandria. Josephus (lib. iii. cap. 3) says, it was 
the third great city of all that belonged to the Roman provinces. It was frequently 
called Antiochia Epidaphne, from its neighborhood to Daphne, a village where the 
temple of Daphne stood, to distinguish it from other fourteen of the same name men- 
tioned by Stephanus de Urbibus, and by Eustathius in Dionys. p. 170; or as Appi- 
anus (in Syriacis) and others, sixteen cities in Syria, and elsewhere, which bore that 
name. It was celebrated among the Jews for ' Jus civitatis,' which Seleucus Nicanor 
had given them in that city with the Grecians and Macedonians, and which, says Jo- 
sephus, they still retain, Antiq. lib. xii. cap. 13 ; and for the wars of the Maccabeans 
with those kings. Among Christians, for being the place where they first received 
that name, and where Saul and Barnabas began their apostolic labors together. In 
the flourishing times of the Roman empire, it was the ordinary residence of the pre- 
fect or governor of the eastern provinces, and also honored with the residence of 
many of the Roman emperors, especially of Verus and Valens, who spent here the 
greatest part of their time. It lay on both sides of the river Orontes, about twelve 
miles from the Mediterranean sea." (Wells's Geography N. T. — Whitby's Table.) 
(J. M. Williams's Notes on Pearson's Annates Paulinae.) 

Having arrived at Antioch, Saul gave himself, with Barnabas, 
zealously to the work for which he had been summoned, and la- 
bored among the people to good purpose, assembling the church, 
and imparting to all that would hear, the knowledge of the Chris- 
tian doctrine. Under these active exertions, the professors of the 
faith of Jesus became so numerous and so generally known in An- 
tioch, that the heathen inhabitants found it convenient to designate 
them by a distinct appellation, which they derived from the great 
founder and object of their religion, — calling them Christians, 
because the heathen inhabitants of Syria were not acquainted 
with the terms, " Nazarene" and " Galilean," which bad been 
applied to the followers of Christ by the Jews, partly from the 
places where they first appeared, and partly in opprobrium for their 
low provincial origin. 

The name now first created by the Syrians to distinguish the sect, is remarkable, 
because, being derived from a Greek word, CAristos, it has a Latin adjective termina- 
tion, Christians, and is therefore incontestably shown to have been applied by the 
Roman inhabitants of Antioch; for no Grecian would ever have been guilty of such 



SAUL. 511 

a barbarism, in the derivation of one word from another in his own language. The 
proper Greek form of the derivative would have been Christicos, or Christenos, and 
the substantive would have been, not Christianity, but Christicism, or C/iristenism,— 
words so awkward in sound, however, that it is very well for all Christendom, that 
the Roman barbarism took the place of the pure Greek termination. And since the 
Latin form of the first derivative has prevailed, and Christian thus been made the 
name of " a believer in Christ," it is evident to any classical scholar, that Christianity 
is the only proper form of the substantive secondarily derived. For though the ap- 
pending of a Latin termination upon a Greek word, as in the case of Christians, 
was unquestionably a blunder and a barbarism in the first place, it yet can not com- 
pare, for absurdity, with the notion of deriving from this Latin form, the substantive 
Christiam'smiis, with a Greek termination foolishly pinned to a Latin one, — a folly of 
which the French are nevertheless guilty. The error, of course, cannot now be cor- 
rected in that language; but those who stupidly copy the barbarism from them, and 
try to introduce the monstrous word, ChristianisM, into English, deserve the reproba- 
tion of every man of taste. 

" Before this they were called ' disciples,' as in this place — ' believers,' Acts v. 14 
— ' men of the church,' Acts xii. 1 — ' men of the way,' Acts ix. 2 — ' the saints,' Acts 
ix. 13 — • those that called on the name of Christ,' ver. 14 — and by their enemies, 
Nazarenes and Galileans, and ' men of the sect;' — but now, by the conversion of so 
many heathens, both in Caesarea and Antioch, the believing Jews and Gentiles being 
made all one church, this new name was given them, as more expressive of their 
common relation to their Master, Christ. Whitby slightly alludes to the prophecy, 
Isa. lxv." (J. M. Williams's Notes on Pearson.) 

While Saul was thus effectually laboring in Antioch, there came 
down to that city, from Jerusalem, certain persons, indued with 
the spirit of prophecy, among whom was one, named Agabus, 
who, under the influence of inspiration, made known that there 
would be a great famine throughout the world ; — a prediction 
which was verified by the actual occurrence of this calamity in 
the days of Claudius Caesar, during whose reign, — as appears on 
the impartial testimony of the historians of those times, both Ro- 
man and Jewish, — the Roman empire suffered at different periods 
in all its parts, from the capital to Jerusalem, — and at this latter 
city, more especially, in the sixth year of Claudius, (A. D. 46,) as 
is testified by Josephus, who narrates very particularly some cir- 
cumstances connected with the prevalence of this famine in Jeru- 
salem. The disciples at Antioch, availing themselves of this in- 
formation, determined to send relief to their brethren in Judea, 
before the famine should come on ; and having contributed each 
one according to his ability, they made Barnabas and Saul the 
messengers of their charity, who were accordingly dispatched to 
Jerusalem, on this noble errand. They remained in Jerusalem 
through the period of Agrippa's attack upon the apostles, by mur- 
dering James, and imprisoning Peter ; but they do not seem to 
have been any way immediately concerned in these events ; and 
when Peter had escaped, they returned to Antioch. How long 
they remained here, is not recorded ; but the date of subsequent 
events seems to imply that it was a space of some years, during 

67 



512 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

which they labored at Antioch in company with several other emi- 
nent prophets and teachers, of whom are mentioned Simeon, who 
had the Roman surname of Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, and Ma- 
naen, a foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch. During their common 
ministrations, at a season of fasting, they received a direction from 
the Spirit of truth which guided them, to set apart Saul and Barna- 
bas for the special work to which the Lord had called them. This 
work was, of course, understood to be that for which Saul, in par- 
ticular, had, at his conversion, been so remarkably commissioned, 
— " to open the eyes of the Gentiles, — to turn them from dark- 
ness to light, and from the dominion of Satan to God." His 
brethren in the ministry, therefore, understanding at once the na- 
ture and object of the summons, now specially consecrated both 
him and Barnabas for their missionary work ; and after fasting 
and praying, they invoked on them the blessing of God, in the 
usual Oriental form of laying their hands on them, and then bade 
them farewell. 

" That this famine was felt chiefly in Judea may be conjectured with great reason 
from the nature of the context, for we find that the disciples are resolving to send 
relief to the elders in Judea ; consequently they must have understood that those in 
Judea would sutler more than themselves. Josephus declared that this famine raged 
so much there, that many perished for want of victuals." 

" ' Throughout the whole world,' irdaav rhv olxovnivriv, is first to be understood, orbis 
terrarum habitabilis : Demosth. in Coron. iEschines contr. Ctesiph. Scapula. Then 
the Roman and other empires were styled oiKovytivri, ' the world.' Thus Isaiah xiv. 
17, 26, the counsel of God against the empire of Babylon, is called his counsel, em rhv 
oXrjv oiKovpevriv, 'against all the earth.' — (Elsley, Whitby.) Accordingly, Eusebius 
says of this famine, that it oppressed almost the whole empire. And as for the truth 
of the prophecy, this dearth is recorded by historians most averse to our religion, 
viz., by Suetonius, in the life of Claudius, chap. 18, who informs us that it happened 
' ob assiduas sterilitates;' and Dion. Cassius Hist. lib. lx. p. 146, that it was X^dj 
iaxypd;, ' a very great famine.' Whitby's Annot. Doddridge enumerates nine fa- 
mines in various years, and parts of the empire, in the reign of Claudius; but the 
first was the most severe, and affected particularly Judea, and is that here meant." 
(J. M. Williams's notes on Pearson.) 

HIS FIRST APOSTOLIC MISSION. 

Going from Antioch directly eastward to the sea, they came to 
Seleucia, the nearest port, only twelve miles from Antioch, and 
there embarked for the island of Cyprus, the eastern end of which 
is not more than eighty miles from the coast of Syria. The cir- 
cumstance that more particularly directed them first to this island, 
was probably that it was the native home of Barnabas, and with 
this region therefore he would feel so much acquainted as to know 
its peculiar wants, and the facilities which it afforded for the ad- 
vancement of the Christian cause ; and he would also know 
where he might look for the most favorable reception. Landing 



SAUL. 513 

at Salamis, on the southeastern part of the island, they first 
preached in the synagogues of the Jews, who were very numer 
ous in Cyprus, and constituted so large a part of the population of 
the island, that some time afterwards they attempted to get com- 
plete possession of it, and were put down only by the massacre of 
many thousands. Directing their efforts first to these wandering 
sheep of the house of Israel, the apostles everywhere preached the 
gospel in the synagogues, never forsaking the Jews for the Gen- 
tiles, until they had been driven away by insult and injury, that 
thus the ruin of their nation might lie, not upon the apostles, but 
upon them only, for their rejection of the repeated offers of salva- 
tion. Here, it would seem, they were joined by John Mark, the 
nephew of Barnabas, who was probably staying upon the island 
at that time, and who now accompanied them as an assistent in 
their apostolic ministry. Traversing the whole island from east 
to west, they came to Paphos, a splendid city near the western 
end, famed for the magnificent temple and lascivious worship of 
the Paphian Venus, a deity to whom all Cyprus was consecrated ; 
and from it she derived one of her numerous appellatives, Cypris 
being a name under which she was frequently worshiped ; and 
the females of the island generally, were so completely devoted to 
her service, not merely in temple-worship, but in life and manners, 
that throughout the world, the name Cyprian woman, even to this 
day, is but a polite expression for one abandoned to wantonness 
and pleasure. The worship of this lascivious goddess, the apostles 
now came to exterminate, and to plant in its stead the dominion 
of a faith, whose essence is purity of heart and action. At this 
place, preaching the gospel with openness, they soon attracted 
such general notice, that the report of their remarkable character 
soon reached the ears of the proconsul of Cyprus, then resident in 
Paphos. This great Roman governor, by name Sergius Paulus, 
was a man of intelligence and. probity, and hearing of the apostles, 
soon summoned them to his presence, that he might have the satis- 
faction of hearing from them, in his own hall, a full exposition of 
the doctrine which they called the word of God. This they did 
with such energy and efficiency, that they won his attention and 
regard ; and he was about to profess his faith in Jesus, when a 
new obstacle to the success of the gospel was presented in the 
conduct of one of those present at the discourse. This was an 
impostor, called Elymas, — a name which seems to be a Greek form 
of the Oriental " Alim" meaning " a magician," — who had, by 



514 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

his tricks, gained a great renown throughout that region, and was 
received into high favor by the proconsul himself, with whom he 
was then staying. The rogue, apprehending the nature of the 
doctrines taught by the apostles to be no way agreeable to the 
schemes of self-advancement which he was so successfully pursu- 
ing, was not. a little alarmed when he saw that they were taking 
hold of the mind of the proconsul, and therefore undertook to re- 
sist the preaching of the apostles ; and attempted to argue the 
noble convert into a contempt of these new teachers. At this, 
Saul, (now first called Paul,) fixing his eyes on the miserable im- 
postor, in a burst of inspired indignation, denounced on him an 
awful punishment for his insistence of the truth. " O, full of all 
guile and all tricks ! son of the devil ! enemy of all honesty ! wilt 
thou not stop perverting the ways of the Lord ? And now, lo ! the 
hand of the Lord is on thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the 
sun for a time." And immediately there fell on him a mist and a 
darkness ; and turning around, he sought some persons to lead 
him by the hand. At the sight of this manifest and appalling 
miracle, thus following the denunciation of the apostle, the pro- 
consul was so struck, that he no longer delayed for a moment his 
profession of faith in the religion whose, power was thus attested, 
but believed in the doctrine of Jesus, as communicated by his 
apostles. 

" Seleucia was a little northwest of Antioeh, upon the Mediterranean sea, named 
from its founder, Seleucus.— Cyprus, so called from the flower of the Cypress-trees 
growing there. — Pliny, lib. xii. cap. 24. — Eustath. In Dionys. p. 110. It was an island, 
having on the east the Syrian, on the west the Pamphylian, on the south the Phoeni- 
cian, on the north the Cilician sea. It was celebrated among the heathens for its 
fertility, as being sufficiently provided with all things within itself. Strabo, lib. xiv. 
468, 469. It was very infamous for the worship of Venus, who had thence her name 
Kv~pis. It was memorable among the Jews as being an island in which they so much 
abounded ; and among Christians for being the place where Joses, called Barnabas, 
had the land he sold, Acts iv. 36; and where Mnason, an old disciple, lived. Acts 
xxi. 16. — (Whitby's Table.) Salamis was once a famous city of Cyprus, opposite to 
Seleucia, on the Syrian coast. — (Wells.) It was in the eastern part of Cyprus. It 
was famous among the Greek writers for the story of the Dragon killed by Chycreas, 
their king; and for the death of Anaxarchus, whom Nicocreon, the tyrant of that 
island, pounded to death with iron pestles.'' — (Bochart. Canaan, lib. i. c. 2. — Laert. lib. 
ix. p. 579.) Williams's Pearson. 

Proconsul. — The Greek title 'AvOvnaros, was applied only to those governors of 
provinces who were invested with proconsular dignity. " And on the supposition that 
Cyprus was not a province of this description, it has "been inferred that the title given 
to Sergius Paulus in this place, was a title that did not properly belong to him. A 
passage has indeed been quoted from Dion Cassius, (Hist. Rom. lib. liv. p. 523, ed. 
Hanoviae, 1690,) who, speaking of the governors of Cyprus and some other Roman 
provinces, applies to them the same title which is applied to Sergius Paulus. But, 
as Dion Cassius is speaking of several Roman provinces at the same time, one of 
which was certainly governed by a proconsul, it has been supposed, that for the sake 
of brevity, he used one term for all of them, whether it applied to all of them or not. 
That Cyprus, however, ought to be excluded, and that the title which he employed, 



PAUL. 515 

as well as St. Luke, really did belong to the Roman governors of Cyprus, appears 
from the inscription on a coin belonging to Cyprus itself. It belonged to the people 
of that island, as appears from the word KYlIPI&N on the reverse : and, though not 
struck while Sergius Paulus himself was governor, it was struck, as appears from 
the inscription on the reverse, in the time of Proclus, who was next to Sergius Pau- 
lus in the government of Cyprus. And, on this coin the same title, ANGYflATOE, 
is given to Proclus, which St. Luke gives Sergius Paulus." (Bp. Marsh's Lect. part 
v. pp. 85, 86.) That Cyprus was a proconsulate, is also evident from an ancient in- 
scription of Caligula's reign, in which Aquius Scaura is called the proconsul of Cy- 
prus. (Gruteri Corpus Inscriptionem, torn. i. part ii. p. cccix. No. 3, edit. Graevii 
Amst. 1707.) Home's Introduction, — quoted by Williams on Pearson. 

Bar- Jesus.— This name means the son of Joshua, or, in the Greek form, Jesus, 
which was a common name among the Jews, and was probably that of the sorcerer's 
father. Some have sought an explanation of the term by a reference to the primary 
meaning, and have translated it " son of health," or " son of healing," with a supposed 
allusion to his pretensions to the power of curing disease and imparting health. 
Others, following the Syriac version, give it the meaning — " son of inspiration," and 
others, by a different construction of the Syriac, make it " son of disease," from his 
medical character. (See Poole on Actsxiii. 6.) 

Elymas. — This has also received a variety of interpretations. It is commonly derived 

from the Arabic ^aA- (alim,) from which comes the derivative Alima, both words 

meaning " magician." Others have suggested the Hebrew NniVn (hhaluma,) mean- 
ing " a healer of diseases." (See Poole.) 

HIS CHANGE OF NAME. 

In connexion with this first miracle of the apostle of Tarsus, it 
is mentioned by the historian of the Acts of the Apostles, that Saul 
thenceforth bore the name of Paul, and the reader is thence fairly- 
led to suppose, that the name was taken from that of Sergius Paul, 
who is the most important personage concerned in the event ; and 
being the first eminent man who is specified as having been con- 
verted by the apostle, seems therefore to deserve, in this case, the 
honor of conferring a new name on the wonder-working Saul. 
This coincidence between the name and the occasion, may be 
justly esteemed sufficient ground for assuming this as the true 
origin of the name by which the apostle was ever after designa- 
ted, — which he applies to himself in his writings, and by which 
he is always mentioned throughout the Christian world, in all ages. 
With the name of " Saul of Tarsus," there were too many evil 
associations already inseparably connected, in the minds of all the 
Jewish inhabitants of the east, and the troublesome character of 
those prevalent impressions having been perhaps particularly ob- 
vious to the apostle, during his first missionary tour, he seized this 
honorable occasion, to exchange it for one that had no such evil 
associations ; and he was therefore afterwards known only by the 
name of PAUL. 

Various reasons have been offered by different commentators and critics, to ac- 
count for the apostle's change of name. From its historical connexion with the con- 
version of the proconsul Sergius Paul, it has commonly been inferred, with much 
reason, that the name of this, his first great convert, suggested itself to the apostle as 



516 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

an appropriate Roman designation, for one whose labors were thenceforth to be almost 
wholly among the Gentiles. Jerome gives this as the prominent reason for the apos- 
tle's selection of this name, nor is there any weight in Beza's objection, that he is 
called Paul by Luke before he announces the conversion of the proconsul. It is 
enough that he is first so named in the account of this transaction ; and the difference 
of three verses made by Luke in anticipating the event, is of no consequence what- 
ever. Some (as Kuinoel, Witsius, &c.) have condemned this supposition as far from 
accordant with the modesty which they consider characteristic of the apostle. Wit- 
sius, on this account, rejects Jerome's idea of Paul's assuming this name as a trophy 
of his first great apostolic conquest, but still very justly makes the name of the pro- 
consul the immediate suggestion for the apostle's adoption of the name of Paul. He 
accepts the hypothesis of Baronius, which is, that Sergius Paulus himself (who was 
of the Aemilian gens or race) gave, as a pledge of friendly and grateful feeling, this 
name of his family to the apostle. In illustration of this, is quoted the instance of 
Josephus, who, taken prisoner in the Jewish war, and gifted, by Flavius Vespasian 
and Flavins Titus, with freedom and citizenship, was furthermore honored by those 
whose favors he returned in grateful historic commemoration, with the name of the 
Flavian gens or race ; and thenceforth the historian became known by the name of 
Flavius Josephus. (Witsius. Melet. Leid. Vit. Paul. iii. 14. Baronius. Annal. A. C. 
36, pp. 263, 264.) The earliest hypothesis on record is that of Origen — that Paul 
originally had only a Hebrew name, (Saul,) which he bore as a Jew of the tribe of 
Benjamin, and that his Latin name (Paul) was assumed by him as a Roman citizen, 
when the duties of the apostleship called him among the heathen, — being known to 
the Jews by the former, and to the Gentiles by the latter ; a species of accommodation 
which is supposed to be illustrated by his own expression, " becoming all things to all 
then, that he might win souls." This is, beyond doubt, an unexceptionable explana- 
tion, and one not inconsistent with the view here adopted as to the immediate occasion 
which suggested this particular name, when the necessity or propriety of a Roman 
appellative began to be felt by the apostle. But the hypothesis of Ambrose of Milan — 
that he received the name Paul at his baptism by Ananias — must be rejected not only 
as inconsistent with the previous view, but as an unwarranted and audacious as* 
sumption of a fact tacitly contradicted by the silence of the apostolic record respect- 
ing any such change of name at his baptism. Equally gratuitous and unsupported 
is Chrysostom's declaration, that the apostle received this new name directly from 
God himself, as was the case with Abraham and Jacob, and as Christ gave new 
names to Peter and to the sons of Zebedee. Witsius also objects to it that God in no 
instance changed a name that had an honorable meaning, for one more insignificant, 
— such being the change from Saul, (>inc) which means " desired," or " desirable," 
to Paul, which, in the Latin, (paulus,} and in the Greek, (-avpo$,) means " little." 
But from this difference in the significations of the names, others have been induced 
to suppose that the modesty and humility of the apostle led him to take an appellation 
of humble character, as more suited to one who, after his conversion, accounted 
himself " the least of all men." Others, without referring to a moral sense, take it to 
have been suggested by his own personal appearance, being a small man, as is infer- 
red from some passages in his writings. Baronius also, giving this as an additional 
reason for his adoption of the proconsul's name, mentions the fact, that the first of 
the Aemilian gens who took the name of Paulus, which afterwards clung to the 
family of his descendents, (and to Sergius Aemilius Paulus among the rest,) derived 
it from the circumstance of his small stature. Kuinoel accepts none of these suppo- 
sitions, but suggests, as a new one, that the Romans in the family of Sergius Paulus, 
first made the change from the foreign and unusual sound of Saul, to the familiar and 
smoother name of Paul,— a. change very similar to many which the Romans made 
without scruple in the names of Hebrews and Greeks, as in numerous instances quo- 
ted by Grotius, Hemsen, and Rosenmiiller. Kuinoel's notion is that the change in 
the apostle's name was made by the Romans for their own convenience ; but Grotius 
and Rosenmiiller suppose with Origen, that the apostle made the change himself as a 
matter of expediency. Neander supposes that he had originally two names, and that 
the Greek form, Paulus, became the predominant one after he had devoted himself to 
the conversion of the Gentiles. (I. iii. 1. p. 69} It should be remembered, however, 
(though all these commentators seem to have forgotten it,) that the apostle may have 
been influenced by several reasons, and probably was so. The connexion of the 
change with the conversion of Sergius Paulus, justly marks that as the occasion and 
hint of this name ; but this of itself could be no reason for a change, unless other mo- 
tives had previously induced him to resolve to make such a change. Among these 



PAUL. 517 

motives, were doubtless several that have been here named ; — the unfortunate ideas 
of persecution connected with the name of Saul, the desire of conforming his appella- 
tion more to the genius of the Latin and Greek languages, the disposition to signify 
his affectionate and respectful regard for his eminent convert, and some incidental 
thought of a peculiar justness in the meaning of the new name, as referring to his 
own humble opinion of his own merits, or to his diminutive stature— probably all 
operated as reasons for the adoption of the name of Paulus, — a name thus transmitted 
to all ages with a lustre that far outshines the consular honors of the Roman family 
from whom he took it, and gilded with a glory that shall long outlive and far out- 
spread the triumphs of the Aemilian conquerors of Macedonia and Africa. 

JOURNEY IN SOUTHEASTERN ASIA MINOR. 

Embarking at Paphos, the apostles, "after doubling cape Acamas, 
the most western point of the island, sailed northwestward, to- 
wards the northern coast of Asia Minor,— and after a voyage of 
about two hundred miles, reached Perga, a city in Pamphylia. 
This place was not a sea-port, but stood on the west bank of the 
river Oestrus, about eight miles from the sea. It was there built 
by the Attalian kings of southwestern Asia, and was by them made 
the most splendid city of Pamphylia. Near the town, and on a 
rising ground, was a very famous temple of Diana, to which every 
year resorted a grand religious assembly, to celebrate the worship 
of this great Asian goddess. In such a strong hold of heathen- 
ism, the apostles must have found much occasion for the preach- 
ing of the gospel ; but the historian of their Acts gives no account 
of any thing here said or done by them, and only mentions that 
at this place their companion, John Mark, gave up his ministra- 
tion with them, and returned to Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas 
then went on without him, to the north, and proceeded, without 
any material delay, directly through Pamphylia, and over the 
ranges of Taurus, through Pisidia, into Phrygia Katakekaumene, 
where they made some stay at the city of Antioch, which was dis- 
tinguished from the great capital of Syria bearing the same royal 
name, by being called " Antioch of Pisidia," because, though really 
within the boundaries of Phrygia, it was often numbered among 
the cities of the province next south, near whose borders it stood, 
and was therefore associated with the towns of Pisidia by those 
who lived south and east of them. At this place the apostles pro- 
bably arrived towards the last of the week, and reposing here on 
the sabbath, they went into the Jewish synagogue, along with the 
usual worshiping assembly, and took their seats quietly among the 
rest. After the regular service of the day (consisting of the reading 
of the select portions of the law and prophets) was over, the minis- 
ter of the synagogue, according to custom, gave an invitation to the 
apostles to preach to the people, if they felt disposed to do so. It 



518 , LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

should be noticed, that in the Jewish synagogues, there was no re- 
gular person appointed to preach, the minister being only a sort of 
reader, who conducted the devotions of the meeting, and chanted 
the lessons from the scriptures, as arranged for each sabbath. 
When these regular duties were over, the custom was to invite a 
discourse from any person disposed or qualified to address the 
people. On this day, the minister, noticing two grave and intel- 
ligent looking persons among the worshipers, joining devoutly in 
the service of God, and perceiving them to be of a higher order 
than most of the assembly, or perhaps having received a previous 
hint of the fact that they were well-qualified religious teachers, 
who had valuable doctrines to communicate to the people, — sent 
word to them — " Brethren ! if you have any word of exhortation 
for the people, say on." Paul, then, — as usual, taking the prece- 
dence of Barnabas in speaking, on account of his own superior 
endowments, as an orator, — addressed the meeting, beginning with 
the usual form of words, accompanied with a graceful gesticula- 
tion, beseeching their favor. " Men of Israel ! and you that fear 
God-! give your attention." The two different classes of persons 
included in this formula, are evidently, first, those who were Jews 
by birth and education, and second, those devout Gentiles who re- 
verenced the God of Israel and conformed to the law of Moses, 
worshiping with the Jews on the sabbath. Paul, in his sermon, 
which was of considerable length, began in the usual form of an 
apostolic discourse to the Jews, by recurring to the early Hebrew 
history, and running over the great leading events and persons 
mentioned in their sacred writings, that might be considered as 
preparing the way for the Messiah. Then proceeding to the nar- 
ration of the most important points in the history of the new dis- 
pensation, he applied all the quoted predictions of the inspired 
men of old, to the man Christ Jesus, whom they now preached. 
The substance of his discourse was, that in Jesus Christ were fully 
accomplished those splendid prophecies contained in the Psalms, 
concerning the future glories of the line of David ; and more es- 
pecially that by his attested resurrection he had fulfilled the words 
spoken by the Psalmist, of the triumphs of the " Holy One" over 
the grave and corruption. Paul thus concluded, — " Be it known 
to you, therefore, brethren, that through this man is preached to 
you forgiveness of sins ; and every one that believes in him is jus- 
tified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the 
law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which 



PAUL. 519 

is spoken by the prophets, — l See ! you despisers ! and wonder and 
be amazed ; for I will do a work in your days, which you shall 
not believe, even if one should tell it to you.' " These denuncia- 
tory concluding words are. from the prophet Habakkuk, where he 
is foretelling to the Israelites of his day, the devastating invasion 
of the Chaldeans ; and the apostle, in quoting them, aimed to im- 
press his hearers with the certainty of similar evils to fall upon 
their nation, — evils so tremendous, that they might naturally dis- 
believe the warning, if it should give them the awful particulars 
of the coming ruin, but whose solemn truth they would, never- 
theless, too soon learn in its actual accomplishment. These words 
being directed in a rather bitter tone of warning to the Jews in 
particular, that portion of the audience do not appear to have been 
much pleased with his address ; but while the most of them were 
retiring from the synagogue, the Gentiles declared their high satis- 
faction with the discourse, and expressed an earnest desire that it 
might be repeated to them on the next sabbath. After the meet- 
ing broke up, many of the audience were so loth to part with 
preachers of this extraordinary character, that they followed the 
apostles to their lodgings. These were mostly the religious pro- 
selytes from the heathen, who worshiped with the Jews in the sy- 
nagogue, bat some even of the Jews were so well satisfied with 
what they had heard, that they also accompanied the throng that 
followed the apostles. Paul and Barnabas did not suffer this oc- 
casion to pass unimproved ; but as they went along, discoursed to 
the company, exhorting them to stand fast in the grace of God. 
They continued in the city through the week, and meanwhile the 
fame of their doctrines and their eloquence extended so fast and 
so far, that when on the next sabbath they went to the synagogue 
to preach according to promise, almost the whole city came pour- 
ing in, along with them, to hear the word of God. But when the 
Jews, who had already been considerably displeased by the man- 
ner in which they had been addressed the last sabbath, saw the 
multitudes that were thronging to hear these new interlopers, 
they were filled with envy, and when Paul renewed his discourse, 
they openly disputed him, — denied his conclusions, and abused 
him and his doctrine. Paul and Barnabas, justly indignant at 
this exhibition of meanness, that thus set itself against the pro- 
gress of the truth among the Gentiles, from whom the Jews, not 
content with rejecting the gospel themselves, would also exclude 
the light of the word, — boldly declared to them — " It was neces- 

68 



520 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

sary that the word of God should first be spoken to you ; but since 
you have cast it off, and thus evince yourselves unworthy of ever- 
lasting: life, — behold, we turn to the heathen. For thus did God 
command us, — ■ I have set thee for a light to the heathen, that thou 
mightest be for their salvation, even to the uttermost part of the 
earth.' " And the heathen hearing this, rejoiced, and glorified the 
word of the Lord, and many of them believed, to their everlasting 
salvation. And the word of God was spread throughout that 
whole country ; but the opposition of the Jews increasing in pro- 
portion to the progress of the faith of Christ, a great disturbance 
was raised against the apostles among the aristocracy of the city, 
who favored the Jews, and more especially among the women of 
high family, who were proselytes ; and the result of the commo- 
tion was, that the apostles were driven out of the city. Paul and 
Barnabas, in conformity to the original injunction of Jesus to the 
twelve, shook off the dust of their feet, as an expressive testimony 
against them, — and turning eastward, came to another city, named 
Iconium, in Lycaonia, the most eastern province of Phrygia. 

You that fear God. Acts xiii. 16. — That there were two classes of hearers pre- 
sent, is very plain from verses 42, 43 ; and the believing Gentiles could not be referred 
to in the address, unless this term were applied to them. This is the view of Corne- 
lius a Lapide, Medonachus, Tirinus, Grotius, &c. (See Poole.) It does not follow 
of course, however, that all to whom this term was applied, were proselytes conform- 
ing to the Mosaic observances, any more than Cornelius the centurion, who is cha- 
racterized by this phrase in Acts x. 2. (See Bloomfield and Kuinoel on that passage, 
and Lardner, in his life of Peter.) 

Lnjcaonia is a province of Asia Minor, accounted the southern part of Cappadocia, 
having Isauria on the west, Armenia Minor on the east, and Cilicia on the south. Its 
chief cities are all mentioned in this chapter xiv. — viz., Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. 
They spake in the Lycaonian tongue, v. 10, which is generally understood to have 
been a corrupt Greek, intermingled with many Syriac words. — (Home's Introduc- 
tion, — quoted by Williams on Pearson.) 

Iconium, a populous city of distinction, (now Konieh,) stood at the foot of Mount 
Taurus, on the northern side. It is mentioned by Xenophon, (Anab. 1, 2, 19,) Strabo, 
(Lib. xii. p. 853,) Pliny, (Hist. nat. v. 27,) and Cicero, (ad famil. xv. 4.V- (Hemsen, 
Apost. Paul, p. 76.) 

Iconium was the capital of Lycaonia, and is mentioned by the 
Grecian and Roman writers, before and after the apostolic times, 
as a place of some importance ; but nothing definite is known of 
its size and character. It appears, at any rate, from the apostolic 
record, that this flourishing city was one of the numerous centres 
of the Jewish population, that filled so much of Asia Minor ; and 
here, according to their custom, the apostles made their first com- 
munication of the gospel in the Jewish synagogue. Entering this 
place of worship, they spoke with such effect, that a great number 
both of Greeks and Jews were thoroughly convinced of the truth 
of the Christian doctrine, and professed their faith in Jesus. But, 



PAUL. 521 

as usual, there was in Iconium a great residue of bigoted adhe- 
rents to the Mosaic faith, who could appreciate neither the true 
scope of the ancient dispensation, nor the perfection of the gospel 
truth ; and a set of these fellows undertook to make trouble for 
the apostles, in the same way that it had been done at the Pisidian 
Antioch. Not having power and influence enough among them- 
selves to effect any great mischief, they were obliged to resort to 
the expedient of exciting the ill-will of the Gentile inhabitants and 
rulers of the city, against the objects of their mischievous designs, 
— and in this instance were successful, inasmuch as " they made 
their minds disaffected against the brethren." But in spite of all 
this opposition, thus powerfully manifested, " long time they abode 
there, speaking boldly in the Lord," who did not fail to grant them 
the ever-promised support of his presence, but " gave testimony 
to the word of his grace, and caused signs and miracles to be done 
by their hands." The immediate effect of this bold maintenance 
of the truth was, that they soon made a strong impression on the 
feelings of the mass of the people, and created among them a dis- 
position to defend the preachers of the word of heavenly grace, 
against the malice of their haters. The consequence, of course, 
was, that the whole city was directly divided into two great par- 
ties, one for and the other against the apostles. On one hand the 
supporters of the Jewish faction were bent upon driving out the 
innovators from the city, and on the other, the numerous audi- 
ences, who had been interested in the preaching of Paul and Bar- 
nabas, were perfectly determined to stand by the apostles at all 
hazards, and the whole city seems to have been on the eve of a 
battle about this difference. But it did not suit the apostles' scheme 
to make use of such means for their own advancement or defense ; 
and hearing that a grand crisis in affairs was approaching, in the 
opposition of the Jewish faction, they took the resolution of evading 
the difficulty, by withdrawing themselves quietly from the scene 
of commotion, in which there was but very little prospect of being 
useful, just then. The whole gang of their opponents, both Gen- 
tiles and Jews, rulers and commonalty, having turned out for the 
express purpose of executing popular vengeance on these odious 
agitators, by abusing and pelting them, the apostles, on getting no- 
tice of the scheme, moved off, before the mob could lay hands on 
them, and soon got beyond their reach, in other cities. 

These fugitives from popular vengeance, after having so nar- 
rowly escaped being sacrificed to public opinion, turned their 



522 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

course southward, and stopped next on their adventurous route at 
the city of Lystra, also within Lycaonia, where they preached the 
gospel ; and not only in the city and its immediate vicinity, but 
also throughout the whole surrounding region, and in the neigh- 
boring towns. In the progress of their labors in Lystra, they one 
day were preaching in the presence of a man who had been lame 
from his birth, being in exactly the same predicament with the 
cripple who was the subject of the first miracle of Peter and 
John, in the temple. This unfortunate auditor of Paul and 
Barnabas believed the word of truth which they preached ; and 
as he sat among the rest, being noticed by the former apostle, was 
recognized as a true believer. Looking earnestly on him, Paul, 
without questioning him at all as to his faith, said to him at once, 
in a loud voice, — " Rise, and stand on thy feet." Instantly the man 
sprang up, and walked. When the people saw this amazing and 
palpable miracle, they cried out, in their Lycaonian dialect, — " The 
gods are come down to us in the likeness of men." Struck with 
this notion, they immediately sought to designate the individual 
deities who had thus honored the city of Lystra with their pre- 
sence ; and at once recognized in the stately form, and solemn, si- 
lent majesty of Barnabas, the awful front of Jupiter, the Father 
of all the gods ; and as for the lively, mercurial person attending 
upon him, and acting, on all occasions, as the spokesman, with such 
vivid, burning eloquence, — who could he be but the attendent and 
agent of Jupiter, Hermes, the god of eloquence and of travelers 1 
Full of this conceit, and anxious to testify their devout sense of 
this condescension, the citizens bustled about, and with no small 
parade brought out a solemn sacrificial procession, with oxen and 
garlands, headed by the priests of Jupiter, and were proceeding to 
offer a sacrifice in solemn form to the divine personages who had 
thus veiled their dignity in human shape, when the apostles, hor- 
ror-struck at this degrading exhibition of the idolatrous spirit 
against which they were warring, and without a single sensation 
of pride or gratitude for this great compliment done them, ran in 
among the people, rending their clothes in the significant gesture 
of true Orientals, and cried out with great earnestness, — " Sirs ! what 
do you mean ? We also are men of like constitutions with your- 
selves, and we preach to you with the express intent that you 
should turn from these follies to the living God, who made heaven 
and earth and sea, and all that is in them. — He, indeed, in times 
past, left all nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he left him- 



paul. 523 

self not wholly without witness of his being and goodness, in that 
he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, 
filling our hearts with food and gladness." With these words of 
splendid eloquence and magnificent conception bursting from their 
lips in the inspiration of the moment, — the apostles, with no small 
ado, stopped the idolatrous folly of the Lystrans, when the mistake 
into which they had been drawn by a mere mob-cry, was shown 
to them. Indignant, not so much at themselves, who alone were 
truly blamable for the error, as against the persons who were the 
nobly innocent occasions of it, — they were in a state of feeling to 
overbalance this piece of extravagance by another, — much more 
wicked, because it was not mere nonsense, but downright cruelty. 
When, therefore, certain spiteful Jews came to Lystra from Antioch 
and Iconium, from which places they had been hunting, like hounds, 
on the track of the apostles, and told their abusive lies to the people 
about the character of these two strange travelers, the foolish Lys- 
trans were easily persuaded to crown their absurdity by falling 
upon Paul, who seemed to be the person most active in the busi- 
ness. Having seized him, before he could escape out of their 
hands, as he usually did from his persecutors, they pelted him with 
such effect that he fell down as if dead ; and they, with no small 
alacrity, dragged him out of the city as a mere carcass. But the 
mob had hardly dispersed, when he rose up, to the great wonder 
of the brethren who stood mourning about him, and went back 
with them into the city. The whole of this interesting series of 
events is a firm testimony to the honesty of the apostolic narrative, 
exhibiting, as it does, so fairly, the most natural, and at the same 
time, the most contemptible tendencies of the human character. 
Never was there given such a beautiful illustration of the value 
and moral force of public opinion ! unless, perhaps, in the very 
similar case of Jesus, in Jerusalem : — " Hosanna," to-day, and 
" Crucify him," to-morrow. One moment, exalting the apostles to 
the name and honors of the highest of all the goo's ; the next, pelt- 
ing them through the streets, and driving them out of the city as 
a nuisance. The Bible is everywhere found to be just so bitterly 
true to human nature, and the whole world cannot furnish a story 
in which the character and moral value of popular movements are 
better exhibited than in the adventures of the apostles, as recorded 
by Luke. 

Acts xiv. 12. — " It has been inquired, why the Lystrans suspected that Paul and 
Barnabas were Mercury and Jupiter 1 To this it may be answered, 1st. that the an- 



524 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

cients supposed the gods especially visited those cities which were sacred to them. 
Now from ver. 13, it appears that Jupiter was worshiped among these people ; and 
that Mercury too was, there is no reason to doubt, considering how general his wor- 
ship would be in so commercial a tract of Maritime Asia. (Gughling de Paulo 
Mercurio, p. 9, and Walch Spic. Antiq. Lystr. p. 9.) How then was it that the priest 
of Mercury did not also appear 1 This would induce one rather to suppose that there 
was no temple to Mercury at Lystra. Probably the worship of that god was confined 
to the sea-coast; whereas Lystra was in the interior and mountainous country. 2. It 
appears from mythological history, that Jupiter was thought to generally descend on 
earth accompanied by Mercury. (See Plaut. Amphytr. 1, 1, 1. Ovid. Met. 8, 626, 
and Fast. 5. 495.) 3. It was a very common story, and no doubt familiar to the Lys- 
trans, that Jupiter and Mercury formerly traversed Phrygia together, and were re- 
ceived by Philemon aud Baucis. (See Odd. Met. 8, 611. Gelpke in Symbol, ad In- 
terp. Acts xiv. 12.) Mr. Harrington has yet more appositely observed, (in his Works, 
p. 330,) that this persuasion might gain the more easily on the minds of the Lycaoni- 
ans, on account of the well-known fable of Jupiter and Mercury, who were said to 
have descended from heaven in human shape, and to have been entertained by Ly- 
caon, from whom the Lycaonians received their name. 

" But it has been further inquired why they took Barnabas for Jupiter, and Paul 
for Mercury. Chrysostom observes, (and after him Mr. Fleming, Christol. Vol. II. 
p. 226,) that the heathens represented Jupiter as an old but vigorous man, of a noble 
and majestic aspect, and a large robust make, which therefore he supposes might be 
the form of Barnabas; whereas Mercury appeared young, little, and nimble, as Paul 
might probably do, since he was yet in his youth. A more probable reason, however, 
and indeed the true one, (as given by Luke,) is, that Paul was so named, because he 
was the leading speaker. Now it was" well known that Mercury was the god of elo- 
quence. So Horn. Carm. 1, 10, 1. Mercuri facunde nepos Atlantis Q.ui feros cultus 
hominum recentum Voce formasti cantus. Ovid. Fast. 5, 688. Macrob. Sat. 8, 8. 
Hence he is called by Jamblich. de Myst. Beds 'o rtiv \6ywv hy^^v, a passage exactly 
the counterpart to the present one, which we may render, ' for he had led the dis- 
course.' " (Bloomfield's Annot. N. T. Vol. IV. c. xiv. § 12.) 

" They called Paul Mereury, because he was the chief speaker," ver. 12. Mercu- 
ry was the god of eloquence. Justin Martyr says Paul is Xdyo? IpjirtvevTiKds <al iravroyv 
SiSdcrica^s, the vjord ; that is, the interpreter and teacher of all men. Ap. ii. p. 67. 
Philo informs us that Mercury is called Hermes, d>? Epprivea xal irpo^nTriv twv deTcjv, as 
being the interpreter and prophet of divine things, apud Euseb. Praep. Evang. Lib. iii. 
c. 2. He is called by Porphyry TrapaaranKos, the exhibitor or representor of reason and 
eloquence. Seneca says he was called Mercury, quia ratio penes ilium est. De Benef. 
Lib. iv. cap. 7.— (Calmet, Whitby, Stackhouse, — quoted by Williams on Pearson.) 

All this commotion, however, made not the slightest impression 
on Paul and Barnabas, nor had the effect of deterring them from 
the work, which they had so unpropitiously carried on. Kn owing, 
as they did, how popular violence always exhausts itself in its 
frensy, they without hesitation immediately returned by the same 
route over which they had been just driven by such a succession 
of popular outrages. The day after Paul had been stoned by the 
people of Lystra, he left that city with Barnabas, and both directed 
their course eastward to Derbe, where they preached the gospel 
and taught many. Then turning directly back, they came again 
to Lystra, then to Iconium, and then to Antioch, in all of which 
cities they had just been so shamefully treated. In each of these 
places, they sought to strengthen the faith of the disciples, earnestly 
exhorting them to continue in the Christian course, and warning 
them that they must expect to attain the blessings of the heavenly 



paul. 525 

kingdom, only through much trial and suffering. On this return 
journey they now formally constituted regular worshiping assem- 
blies of Christians in all the places from which they had before 
been so tumultuously driven as to be prevented from perfecting 
their good work, — ordaining elders in every church thus constitu- 
ted, and solemnly, with fasting and prayer, commending them to 
the Lord on whom they believed. Still keeping the same route 
on which they had come, they now turned southward into Pam- 
phylia, and came again to Perga. From this place they went 
down to Attalia, a great city south of Perga, on the coast of Pam- 
phylia, founded by Attalus Philadelphus, king of Pergamus. At 
this port they embarked for the coast of Syria, and soon arrived at 
Antioch, from which they had been commended to the favor of 
God. on this adventurous journey. On their arrival, the whole 
church was gathered to hear the story of their doings and suffer- 
ings, and to this eager assembly the apostles then recounted all 
that happened to them in the providence of God, their labors, their 
trials, dangers, and hair-breadth escapes, and the crowning suc- 
cesses in which all these providences had resulted ; and more 
especially did they they set forth in what a signal manner, during 
this journey, the door of Christ's kingdom had been opened to the 
Gentiles, after the rejection of the truth by the unbelieving Jews ; 
and thus happily ended Paul's first great apostolic mission. 

Bishop Pearson here allots three years for these journeys of the apostles, viz. 45, 
46, and 47, and something more. But Calmet, Tillemont, Dr. Lardner, Bishop Tom- 
line, and Dr. Hales, allow two years for this purpose, viz. 45 and 46 ; which period 
corresponds with our Bible chronology. (Williams on Pearson.) 

THE DISPUTES ON THE CIRCUMCISION. 

The great apostle of the Gentiles now made Antioch his home, 
and resided there for many years, during which the church grew 
prosperously. But at last some persons came down from Jerusa- 
lem, to observe the progress which the new Gentile converts were 
making in the faith ; and found, to their great horror, that all 
were going on their Christian course, in utter disregard of the an- 
cient ordinances of the holy Mosaic covenant, neglecting altogether 
even that grand seal of salvation, which had been enjoined on 
Abraham and all the faithful who should share in the blessings 
of the promise made to him ; they therefore took these back- 
sliders and loose converts to task, for their irregularities in this 
matter, and said to them, " Unless you be circumcised according 
to the Mosaic usage, you cannot be saved." This denunciation 



526 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

of eternal ruin on the Gentile non-conformists, of course made a 
great commotion among the Antiochians, who had been so hope- 
fully progressing in the pure, spiritual faith of Christ, — and were 
not prepared by any of the instructions which they had received 
from their apostolic teachers, for any such stiff subjection to te- 
dious rituals. Nor were Paul and Barnabas slow in resisting this 
vile imposition upon those who were just rejoicing in the glorious 
light and freedom of the gospel ; and they at once, therefore, reso- 
lutely opposed the attempts of the bigoted Judaizers to bring them 
under the servitude of the yoke which not even the Jews them- 
selves were able to bear. After much disputing on this knotty 
point, it was determined to make a united reference of the whole 
question to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, and that Paul and 
Barnabas should be the messengers of the Antiochian church, in 
this consultation. They accordingly set out, escorted beyond the 
city by the church ; and passing first directly southward, along the 
Phoenician coast, they next turned inland, through Samaria, every- 
where visiting the churches on the route, and making known to 
them the joyful story of the conversions among the Gentiles of 
Asia Minor, which was news to the Christians of Palestine, and 
caused great congratulations among them, at these unexpected tri- 
umphs of their common faith. Arriving at Jerusalem, they there, 
for the first time, gave to the twelve apostles a detailed account of 
their long Asian mission ; and then brought forward the grand 
question under debate. As soon as this point was presented, all 
the Jewish prejudices of that portion of the church who were of 
the order of the Pharisees, were instantly aroused,— and with great 
earnestness they insisted " that it was necessary to circumcise them, 
and to command them to keep the law of Moses." This first 
meeting, however, adjourned without coming to any conclusion ; 
and the apostles and elders were called together again to consider 
upon the matter. As soon as they were assembled, they fell to 
disputing with great violence, and, of course, with no decisive or 
profitable result ; but at last the apostolic chief rising up, ended 
the debate with a very clear statement of the results of his own 
personal experience of the divine guidance in this matter, and 
with brief but decisive eloquence hushed their clamors, that they 
might give Barnabas and Paul a chance to declare in what man- 
ner God had sanctioned their similar course. The two apostles 
of the Gentiles then narrated what miracles and wonders God had 
wrought among the heathen by them. Such was the decisive 



paul. 527 

effect of their exposition of these matters of fact, that all debate 
was checked at once ; and James himself, the great leader of the 
Judaical order, rose to express his perfect acquiescence in the de- 
cision of the apostolic chief and the Hellenists. His opinion was, 
that only so much conformity to the Mosaic institutions should be 
required of the Gentile converts, as they might without inconve- 
nience submit to, out of respect to the old covenant, and such ob- 
servances as were necessary for the moral purity of a professing 
Christian of any nation. The whole assembly concurred ; and it 
was resolved to despatch two select persons out of their own com- 
pany, to accompany Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, and thus by 
their special commission, enforce the decision of the apostolic and 
presbyterial council. The decision of the council was therefore 
committed to writing, in a letter which bore high testimony to the 
zeal and courage of Barnabas and Paul, as " men who had ha- 
zarded their lives for the sake of the gospel," — and it was an- 
nounced as the inspired decision of the apostles, elders, and bre- 
thren, that the Gentile converts should not be troubled with any 
greater burden than these necessary things : — " That you abstain 
from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things 
strangled, and from fornication ;" and if they should only keep 
themselves from these, they would do well. Jude and Silas were 
the envoys commissioned with the charge of this epistle, and ac- 
cordingly accompanied Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch. 

" Those who maintained this position were Jews, of the sect of the Pharisees, Acts 
xv. 5, converted to Christianity, but still too zealous for the observance of the law ; 
and their coming immediately from Judea might make it rather believed, that the ne- 
cessity of circumcision, in order to salvation, was a tenet of the apostles. The Jews 
themselves indeed were of different opinions in this matter, even as to the admission 
of a man into their religion. For some of them would allow those of other nations 
who owned the true God, and practised moral duties, to live quietly among them, and 
even without circumcision, to be admitted into their religion ; whilst others were de- 
cidedly opposed to any such thing. Thus Josephus tells us that when Izates, the son 
of Helen, queen of Adiabene, embraced the Jews' religion, Ananias, who converted 
him, declared that he might do it without circumcision ; but Eleazar, another emi- 
nent Jew, maintained, that it was a great impiety in such circumstances, to remain 
uncircumcised ; and this difference of opinion continued among the Jewish Christian 
converts, some allowing Gentiles to become converts to Christianity, without submitting 
to circumcision and the Jewish law : whilst others contended that without circumcision, 
and the observance of the law, their profession of the Christian faith would not save 
them." (Stackhouse, from Whitby and Beausobre ,— quoted by Williams on Pearson.) 

" It is very evident, that this is the same journey to which the apostle alludes in 
Gal. ii. First, from the agreement of the history here and the apostle's relation in 
the epistle, as that ' he communicated to them the gospel, which he preached among 
the Gentiles,' Gal. ii. 2, which he now did, Acts xv. 4. That circumcision was not then 
judged necessary to the Gentiles, ver. 3, as we find, Acts xv. 24, ' that, when they saw 
the gospel of uncircumcision was committed to him, they gave to him and Barnabas 
the right hand of fellowship,' Gal. ii. 9, as they did here, sending their very decree 
with one consent to the Gentiles, ' by the hands of Paul and Barnabas? Acts xv. 22, 
25, who were received by the ' whole church/ ver. 4, and styled ' beloved,' ver. 25. 
69 



I 



528 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

" Secondly, it appears unlikely that the apostle, writing this epistle about nine years 
after this council, should make no mention of a thing so advantageous to a cause he 
is pleading here, and so proper to confute the pretenses of the adversaries he disputes 
against. And, 

" Thirdly, James, Peter, and John, being all the apostles now present at the council, 
the mention of their consent to his doctrine and practice was all that was necessary 
to his purpose to be mentioned concerning that council. It is no objection to this 
opinion, that we find no mention in Acts xv. of Titus's being with him ; for he is not 
mentioned in the whole of the Acts, during which interval the journey must have 
happened." (Whitby,— quoted by Williams.) 

" The Council of Jerusalem was assembled in the fourteenth year after St. Paul's 
conversion. For the apostle adverts to this same journey, and determinately speci- 
fies the time in Gal. ii. 1, 2. Grotius is of opinion that four years should be here 
written instead of fourteen; who. nevertheless, allows that the one mentioned in 
Gaiatians, is this journey to the Council. But the reason is evident why the apostle 
should date these years from the epoch of his conversion, from the scope of the first 
and second chapters. He styles himself an apostle, not of men, neither by man, 
chap. i. 1 : he declared that his gospel was not according to men, and that he neither 
received nor learned it from men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, ver. 11, 12. 
And this he proves to the Gaiatians by his conversion, which was not unknown to 
them. He begins with his strict profession of the Jewish religion, according to the 
tenets of the Pharisees, which ended in a most violent persecution of the Christians. 
Then he goes on to show how God revealed his Son to him, and that immediately 
he conferred not with flesh and blood, he neither held communion with any man, 
neither did he go up to Jerusalem to them that were apostles before him, by whom 
he could have been taught more fully the mind of God, ' but went into Arabia,' 
where he received the gospel by revelation ; and he returned to Damascus, and 
preached the word of God to the confounding of the Jews : ' Then after three years 
he went up to Jerusalem to see Peter.' From all this it appears evident, that the 
epoch of these three years should commence at the time of his conversion. The 
same is to be said of the other epoch of the fourteen years. ' Then, after fourteen 
years, I went up again to Jerusalem,' chap. ii. 1, because the scope of both is the 
same,— and they both date from the same period of time. The word ht&$* does not 
connect this sentence with that of the three years, as if the beginning of these should 
be dated from the close of those, because there is another 1'™™ which comes between 
these two texts, viz. in ver. 21 of chap, i., where he begins to relate his travels in Sy- 
ria and Cilicia, but does not specify the period of time he remained in those regions; 
therefore no chronological connexion can have been intended by him. The apostle 
still following up his design, says e-ura and n&Xiv, but neither does l-aura refer to his 
stay in Syria and Cilicia, — nor vakip to his second coming to Jerusalem : for he had 
been with a second collection to Jerusalem, then suffering from famine, accompanied 
by Barnabas, but not by Titus; and because he then saw none of the apostles, he 
omitted mentioning that journey, considering it quite foreign to his present purpose." 
(Pearson. Ann. 49.) 

paul's quarrel with peter. 
The whole company of envoys, both Barnabas and Paul, the 
original messengers of the Syrian church, and Jude and Silas, the 
deputies of the apostolic college, presented the complete results of 
the Jerusalem consultation before a full meeting of the whole con- 
gregation of believers at Antioch, and read the epistle of the council 
to them. The sage and happy exhortations which it contained 
were not only respectfully, but joyfully received ; and in addition 
to the comfort of these, the first written words of Christian inspi- 
ration, the two envoys, Jude and Silas, also discoursed to the 
church, commenting at more length on the apostolic message of 
which they were the bearers; and confirmed their hearers in the 



paul. 529 

faith. After remaining there for some time, Jude bade them fare- 
well, and returned to his apostolic associates ; but Silas was so 
much pleased with the opportunities thus afforded him of doing 
good among the Gentiles, of whom he himself also was one, as his 
name shows, — that he stayed in Antioch after the departure of 
Jude, and labored along with Paul and Barnabas, teaching and 
preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. This is 
commonly understood to be the time of Paul's dissension with Pe- 
ter, as mentioned in the epistle to the Galatians. The circum- 
stances of this disagreeable occurrence have already been narrated 
and commented on, in the Life of Peter, — nor need any thing ad- 
ditional be presented here in relation to Paul, except the observa- 
tion, that his dispute with the chief apostle, and the harsh censure 
of his conduct, are very much in accordance with the impressions 
of his character, given in other passages of his life. He was evi- 
dently a man of violent and hasty feelings ; and is frequently repre- 
sented, by his historian and by himself, as quite harsh in his denun- 
ciations of those who differed from him, both before and after his 
calling to the apostleship ; and this trait is manifested on such a 
variety of occasions, as to be very justly considered an inseparable 
peculiarity of his natural disposition and temperament. Doubt- 
less there are many to whom it seems strange, that the Apostle 
Paul should ever be spoken of as having been actually and truly 
angry, or ever having made an error in his conduct after his eon- 
version ; but there are instances enough to show that it was not a 
mere modest injustice to himself for him to tell the Lystran idolaters 
that he was a man of like passions with them, — but a plain matter 
of fact, made evident not only by his own noble and frank confession, 
but by many instances throughout his recorded life. Yet there are 
Protestants, who are in the habit of making so much of an idol or 
demi-god of Paul, that they are as little prepared as the Lystrans 
to appreciate the human imperfections of his character; and if Paul 
himself could at this moment be made fully sensible of the undue 
reverence with which many of his modern enlightened adorers 
regard him, he would be very apt to burst out in the same earnest 
and grieved tone, in which he checked the similar folly of the 
Lystrans, — " Sirs ! why do ye these things ? I also am a man of 
like passions with yourselves." — " The spirit of divine truth which 
actuated me, and guided me in the way of light, by which I led 
others to life eternal, still did not make me any thing more than a 
man, — a man in moral as in bodily weakness, nor exempt from 



530 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

liabilities to the accidents of passion, any more than to the pains 
of mortal disease. The spirit that guided my pen in the record 
of eternal truth, and my tongue in the preaching of the word of 
salvation, did not exalt me above the errors, the failings, and 
distresses of mortality ; and I was still all my lifetime subject to 
the bondage of sin, groaning under that body of death, and long- 
ing for the day when I should pass away from the frailties and 
distresses of earth, to that state of being which alone is wholly 
sinless and pure. 1 ' 

" From the opposition to St. Peter, which they suppose to be before the Council at 
Jerusalem, some would have it, that this Epistle to the Galatians was written before 
that Council ; as if what was done before the Council could not be mentioned in a 
letter written after the Council. They also contend, that this journey, mentioned 
here by St. Paul, was not that wherein he and Barnabas went up to that Council to 
Jerusalem, but that mentioned Acts xi. 30 ; but this with as little ground as the former. 
The strongest reason they bring is, that if this journey had been to the Council, and 
this letter after that Council, St. Paul would not certainly have omitted to have men- 
tioned to the Galaiians that decree. To which it is answered, 1. The mention of it 
was superfluous; for they had it already; see Acts xvi. 4. 2. The mention of it was 
impertinent to the design of St. Paul's narrative here. For it is plain, that his aim, 
in what he relates here of himself, and his past actions, is to show, that having receiv- 
ed the gospel from Christ by immediate revelation, he had all along preached that, 
and nothing but that, everywhere ; so that he could not be supposed to have preached 
circumcision, or by his carriage to have shown any subjection to the law ; all the 
whole narrative following being to make good what he says, chap. i. 11, ' that the 
gospel which he preached was not accommodated to the humoring of men; nor did 
he seek to please the Jews (who were the men here meant) in what he taught.' Ta- 
king this to be his aim, we shall find the whole account he gives of himself, from that 
verse 11 of chap, i., to the end of the second chapter, to be very clear and easy, and 
very proper to invalidate the report of his preaching circumcision ." (Locke's Paraph. 
— quoted by Williams.) 

" I conceive that this happened at the time here stated, because Paul intimates in 
Gal. ii. 11, that he was in Antioch when Peter came there; and Peter had never 
been to Antioch before Paul was in that city after the Council of Jerusalem; and 
besides, the dissension between Paul and Barnabas, who was the intimate friend of 
Peter, appears to have originated here." Pearson's Annales Paulin. (A. D. 50.) 

A fine exhibition of a quibbling, wire-drawn argument, may be found in Baronius, 
(Ann. 51,) who is here put to his wits' end to reconcile the blunt, " round, unvarnished 
tale," in Paul's own account, (in Galat. ii. 11 — 14,) with the papistical absurdity of 
the moral infallibility of the apostles. He lays out an argument of five heavy folio 
pages to prove that, though Paul quarreled thus with Peter, yet neither of them was 
in the slightest degree to blame, &c. But the folly of explaining away the Scriptures 
in this manner, is not confined wholly to the bigoted, hireling historian of papal 
Rome; some of the boldest of protestants have, in the same manner, attempted to re- 
concile the statement of Paul with the notion of apostolic infallibility in action. 
Witsius (Vit. Pauli. iv. 12) expends a paragraph to show that neither of them was to 
blame ; but following the usual course of anti-papist writers, he represents the great 
protectant idol, Paul, in altogether the most advantageous light, according to the pro- 
verbial peculiarity of the opponents of the church of Rome, who, in their apostolic 
distinctions, uniformly " rob Peter to pay Paul." 

Paul's quarrel with barnabas. 

The church of Antioch having thus made great advances under 

these very abundant and extraordinary instructions, the apostles 

began to turn their eyes again to a foreign field, and longed for a 

renewal of those adventurous labors from which they had now had 



PAUL. 531 

so long a repose. Paul therefore proposed to Barnabas that they 
should go over their old ground again : — " Let us go again and 
visit our brethren in every city, where we have preached the word 
of the Lord, and see how they do." To this reasonable proposi- 
tion Barnabas readily agreed, and as it was desirable that they 
should have an assistant with them on this journey, he proposed 
that his nephew Mark should accompany them in this capacity, as 
he had done on their former voyage. But Paul, remembering the 
manner in which he had forsaken them just as they were entering 
upon the arduous missionary fields of Asia Minor, refused to try 
again one who had once failed to do them the desired service, at 
a time when he was most needed. Yet Barnabas, being led, no 
doubt by his near relationship to the delinquent evangelist, to 
overlook this single deficiency, and, perhaps, having good reason 
to think that he had now made up his mind to stick to them 
through good and bad fortune, was disposed to give him another 
trial in the apostolic service, and therefore strongly urged Paul to 
accept of him as their common assistant in this new tour, for which 
he was well fitted by his knowledge of the routes. Paul, however, 
no doubt irritated against Mark, for the wavering spirit already 
manifested by him at Perga, utterly refused to have any thing to 
do with him after such a display of character, and wished to take 
some other person who had been tried in the good work with more 
satisfactory results as to his resolution and ability. Barnabas, of 
course, .. was not at all pleased to have his sister's son treated so 
slightingly, and refused to have any substitute whatever, insisting 
that Mark should go, while Paul was equally resolved that he 
should not. The conclusion of the whole matter was, that these 
two great apostles, the authorized messengers of God to the Gen- 
tiles, quarreled; and after much furious contention, they parted 
entirely from one another ; and are not known to have ever after 
been associated in apostolic labors, although they had been the 
most intimate friends and fellow-travelers for many years, standing 
by one another through evil and good report, through trials, perils, 
distresses, and almost to death. A most lamentable exhibition of 
human weakness marring the harmonious progress of the great 
scheme of evangelization ! Yet it must be esteemed one of the 
most valuable facts relating to the apostles that are recorded in the 
honest, simple, clear, and truly impartial narrative of Luke ; be- 
cause it reminds the Christian reader of a circumstance, that he 
might otherwise forget, in an undue reverence for the character of 



532 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the apostles, — and that is the circumstance that these consecrated 
ministers of the word of truth were, really and practically, not- 
withstanding their holiness, " men of like passions with ourselves," 
and even in the arrangement of their apostolic duties, were liable 
to be governed by the impulses of human passion, which, on a 
few occasions like this, acting in opposite directions in diiferent 
persons at the same time, brought them into open collisions and 
disputes, — which, if men of their pure martyr-spirit, mostly, too, 
under the guidance of a divine influence, could not avoid, nor 
could satisfactorily settle, neither may the unconsecrated historian 
of a later age presume to decide. Who was right and who was 
wrong in this difficulty, it is impossible to say ; and each reader 
may judge for himself. It may be remarked, however, that Paul 
was no more likely to be right than Barnabas ; he was a younger 
man, as it would appear from the circumstance that he is named 
after him in the apostolic epistle ; — he was no more an apostle than 
Barnabas was ; for both are thus named by Luke in his account of 
their first journey, and both were expressly called by a distinct re- 
velation from the Holy Spirit to undertake the apostleship of the 
Gentiles together. Paul also is known to have had contention 
with other persons, and especially with Peter himself, and that, too, 
without very just cause ; and although Barnabas may have been 
influenced to partiality by his relationship to Mark, yet much also 
may be justly chargeable to Paul's natural violence of temper, 
which often led him into hasty acts, of which he afterwards re- 
pented, as he certainly did in this very case, after some time ; for 
he repeatedly mentions Mark in his epistles in terms of regard, 
and what is most in point, declares him to be " profitable to him 
in the ministry." 

Witsius remarks, (Vit. Paul. iv. 16,) that the ancient Christian writers ascribe the 
greatest part of the blame of this quarrel to Barnabas, whom they consider as having 
been unduly influenced by natural affection for his kindred according to the flesh. 
" But," as Witsius thinks, " it may well be doubted whether Paul's natural violence 
of temper did not carry him somewhat beyond the bounds of right. The Greeks 
have not unwisely remarked — 'O IIai)Ao? e^tei to Sikcuov, b 'QapvaBag to $>i\avQpoyirov, 
£ Paul demanded what was just — Barnabas what was charitable.' It might have been 
well enough if Barnabas had yielded to the zeal of Paul; but it would not have been 
bad if Paul had persuaded himself to allow something to the feelings of that most 
mild and amiable man. Meanwhile, it deserves notice, that God so ordered this, that 
it turned out as much for the individual benefit of Mark, as for the general benefit of 
the church. For the kind partiality of Barnabas was of advantage to Mark, in pre- 
venting him from being utterly cast off from apostolic companionship, and forsaken 
as unworthy ; while to the church, this separation was useful, since it was the means 
of confirming the faith of more of the churches in the same time." 

" From hence we may learn, not only that these great lights in the Christian church 
were men of the like passions with us, but that God, upon this occasion, did most 
eminently illustrate the wisdom of his providence, by rendering the frailties of two 



paul. 533 

such eminent servants instrumental to the benefit of his church, since both of them 
thenceforward employed their extraordinary industry and zeal singly and apart, 
which till then had been united, and confined to the same place." (Stanhope on the 
Epistles and Gospels, vol. 4, — quoted by Williams.) 

HIS SECOND APOSTOLIC MISSION. 

After this unhappy dispute, the two great apostles of the Gen- 
tiles separated ; and while Barnabas, accompanied by his favorite 
nephew, pursued the former route to Cyprus, his native island, 
Paul took a different direction, by land, north and west. In se- 
lecting a companion for a journey which he had considered as ur- 
gently requiring such blameless rectitude and firmness of resolu- 
tion, he had set his heart upon Silas, the efficient Hellenist deputy 
from Jerusalem, whose character had been fully tested and devel- 
oped during his stay in Antioch, where he had been so active in 
the exercise of those talents as a preacher, which had gained for 
him the title of " prophet" before his departure from Jerusalem. 
Paul, during his apostolic association with him, had laid the foun- 
dation of a very intimate friendship ; and being thus attached to 
him by motives of affection and respect, he now selected him as 
the companion of his missionary toils. Bidding the church of 
Antioch farewell, and being commended by them to the favor of 
God, he departed,- — not by water, but through the cities of Syria, 
by land, — whence, turning westward, he passed through the Syrian 
gates into Cilicia; in all these places strengthening the churches 
already planted, by making large additions to them from the Gentiles 
around them. Journeying northwest from Cilicia, he came by the 
Cilician gates of Taurus, to his old scenes of labor and suffering, 
in Lycaonia, at Derbe and Lystra, where he proceeded in the task 
of renewing and completing the good work which he had himself 
begun on his former tour with Barnabas ; with whom he might 
now doubtless have effected vastly more good, and whose absence 
must have been deeply regretted by those who owed their hopes 
of salvation to the united prayers and labors of him and Paul. 
Among those who had been converted here by the apostles on their 
first mission, was a half-breed Jew, by name Timothens, his father 
having been a Greek, who married Eunice, a Jewess, and had 
maintained a high character among his countrymen in that region, 
both in Lystra and Iconium. Under the early and careful in- 
structions of his pious mother, who had herself received a superior 
religious education under her own mother, Lois, Timothy had ac- 
quired a most uncommon familiarity with the Scriptures, which 



534 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

were able to make him wise unto salvation ; and that he had 
learned them and appreciated their meaning in a much more spi- 
ritual and exalted sense than most Jews, appears from the fact, that 
notwithstanding his early regard for the law as well as the pro- 
phets, he had never complied with the Mosaic rite of circumcision, 
— perhaps because his father may have been prejudiced against the 
infliction of such a sign upon his child. Paul becoming acquainted 
with Timothy, and seeing in the young man the germ of those 
talents which were afterwards so eminent in the gospel cause, de- 
termined to train him to be an assistent and associate with him in 
the apostolic ministry, — and in order to make him so far conform 
to all the rites of the ancient covenant, as would fit him for an 
acceptable ministry among the Jews as well as the Gentiles, he 
had him circumcised ; and he was induced still farther to this step 
of conformity, by the consideration of the effect it would have on 
the Jews in that immediate neighborhood, who were already very 
suspicious that Paul was in reality aiming at the utter overthrow 
and extinction of all the Mosaic usages, and was secretly doing 
all that he could to bring them into contempt and disuse. Having 
made this sacrifice to the prejudices of his countrymen, he now 
considered Timothy as completely fitted for usefulness in the apos- 
tolic ministry, and henceforth made him his constant companion 
for years. 

HIS WESTWARD JOURNEY. 

With this accession to his company, Paul proceeded through 
the cities of that region which he had before visited, and commu- 
nicated to them the decrees passed by the apostles and elders at 
Jerusalem, for the regulation of the deportment of professing Chris- 
tians, in regard to the observance of Mosaic usages. They all, 
moreover, labored for the extension of the churches already found- 
ed, and thus caused them to be built up, so that they received fresh 
additions daily. Nor did Paul limit his apostolic labors to the 
mere confirmation of the work begun on his tour with Barnabas ; 
but after traversing all his old fields of exertion, he extended his 
journey far north of his former route, through all Phrygia, and 
Galatia, a province which had never before been blessed with the 
presence of a Christian missionary, — and after laboring in his high 
vocation there, he was disposed to move west, to the Ionian or true 
Asian shore of the Aegean, but was checked by a direction which 
he could not resist : and passing northward of the true Asian cities, 



paul. 535 

he came out of Phrygia into Mysia, the province that occupies the 
northwestern corner of all Asia Minor, bounded north by the Pro- 
pontis and Hellespont, and west by the northern part of the Aegean, 
— the true Asia lying south of it, within the geographical division 
commonly named Lydia. Having entered Mysia, they were ex- 
pecting to turn northeast into Bithynia, when again their own 
preferences and counsels were overruled by the same mysterious 
impulse as before, and they therefore continued their westward 
journey to the shore of the Hellespont and Aegean, arriving within 
the classic region of the Troad, at the modern city of Alexandria 
Troas, some miles south of that most glorious of all the scenes of 
Grecian poetical antiquity, where, thirteen hundred years before, 
" Troy was." Here they rested for a brief space, and while they 
were undecided as to the course which they ought next to pursue, 
Paul had a remarkable vision, which gave a summons too distinct 
to be mistaken or doubted, to a field in which the most noble tri- 
umphs of the cross were destined to be won under his own per- 
sonal ministration, and where through thousands of years the 
name of Christ was to consecrate and re-exalt the land, over all 
whose hills, mountains, streams, valleys, and seas, then as now, clus- 
tered the rich associations of a most splendid antiquity — associated 
in the records and monuments of history, with the beautiful and 
the excellent in poetry, art, taste, literature, philosophy, and moral 
exaltation. In the night, as Paul was slumbering at his stopping- 
place, in the Troad, there appeared to him a vision of a Macedo- 
nian, who seemed to cry out beseechingly to him — " Come over 
into Macedonia, and help us !" This voice of earnest prayer for 
the help of Christ, rolling over the wide Aegean, was enough to 
move the ardent spirit of Paul, and on waking he therefore sum- 
moned his companions to attend him in his voyage to this new 
field. He had been joined here by a new companion, as appears 
from the fact that the historian of the Acts of the apostles now 
begins to speak in the first person, of the apostolic company ; and 
it thence appears that besides Silas and Timotheus, Paul was 
now attended by Luke. Setting sail from Troas, as soon as they 
could get ready for this unexpected extension of their travels, the 
whole four were wafted by a fresh southeastern breeze from the 
Asian shore, first to the large island of Samothrace ; and on the 
second day, they came to Neapolis, a town on the coast of Mace- 
donia, which is the seaport of the great city of Philippi. 

70 



536 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

HIS MISSION IN MACEDONIA. 

They without delay proceeded to Philippi, the chief city of that 
part of Macedonia, taking its name from that sage monarch who 
laid the foundation of the Macedonian dominion over the Grecian 
world, and gave this city its importance and splendor, rebuilding 
it, and granting it the honors of his peculiar favor. Under the 
Roman conquest it had lost no part of its ancient importance, but 
had been endowed by Julius Caesar, in a special decree, with the 
high privileges of a Roman colony, and was in the apostolic age 
one of the greatest cities in that part of Europe. Here Paul and 
his companions staid for several days ; and seeking on the sabbath 
for some place where they could, in that heathen land, observe the 
worship, and celebrate the praises of the God of their fathers, they 
wandered forth from the great pagan city, and sat down, away 
from the unholy din of mirth and business, in a retired place on 
the banks of the little stream which ran by the town, being made 
up of numerous springs that rise at the foot of the hills north of it, 
— which gave it the name of Crenides, or " the city of springs ;" 
— the common name of the town before its conquest by Philip. 
In such places, by the side of streams and other waters, the Jews 
were always accustomed to construct their places for social wor- 
ship ; and here, in this quiet place, a few Jewish residents of the 
city resorted for prayer, remembering the God of their fathers, 
though so far from his sanctuary. Those who thus kept up 
the worship of God in this place, are mentioned as being women 
only ; for it may always be observed that it is among the softer 
sex that religion takes deepest root, and among them a regard 
to its observances is always found, long after the indifference gene- 
rated by a change of circumstances, or by the engrossing cares of 
business, has turned away the devotions of men. So was it in 
Philippi ; while the sons of Judah had grown indifferent to those 
observances of their religion which were inconvenient, by inter- 
fering with the daily arrangements of business intercourse with 
their heathen fellow-citizens, the daughters of Zion came still re- 
gularly together, to the place where prayer was wont to be made. 
Here the apostolic company met them, and preached to them the 
new word of grace, now revealed for all the scattered race of Israel, 
far and near, — -and not for them only, but also for the Gentiles. 
Among these gentle auditors of the word of grace, now first pro- 
claimed in Greece, was a Jewess, named Lydia, who had emigrated 



paul. 537 

from Thyatira, in Lydian Asia, and now carried on in Philippi a 
trade in the purple dye, for which the region from which she came 
was so famous, even from the time of Homer. While listening to 
the words of Paul, her heart was opened to the comprehension of 
the truth of the gospel, and she professed her faith in Jesus. 
Having been baptized with all her household, she was so moved 
with regard for those who had thus taught her the way of salva- 
tion, that she earnestly invited them to make her house their home. 
Complying with her benevolent and hospitable invitation, Paul, 
Silas, Timothy, and Luke, took up their abode in her house, and 
remained there throughout their whole stay in Philippi. 

" Philippi was a city of Macedonia, of moderate extent, and not far from the bor- 
ders of Thrace. It was formerly called Crenides, from its numerous springs, from 
which arises a small stream, mentioned Acts xvi. 13, though it is commonly omitted 
in the maps. The name of Philippi it received from Philip, father of Alexander, 
who enlarged it, and fortified it as a barrier town against the Thracians. Julius 
Caesar sent hither a Roman colony, as appears from the following inscription on a 
medal of this city, COL. IUL. AUG. PHIL, quoted in Vaillant Num. am. imp. T. 
I. p. 160, and from Spon Misc. p. 173. See also Pliny, L. IV. c. ii. and the authors 
in Wolfii Curae, itpurri rm ficpiios rfjs MaiceSovias rris TrdAtj, ' the first city of that district of 
Macedonia:' but in what sense the word ^pum, or ' first,' is here to be taken, admits 
of some doubt. Paulus iEmilius had divided Macedonia into four districts, and that 
in which Philippi was situated, was called npoirr), or the first district. But of this 
district, Philippi does not appear to be entitled, in any sense, to the name of itputrri 
noXis. For if npioTr) be taken in the sense of ' first in respect to place,' this title be- 
longed rather to Neapolis, which was the frontier town of Macedonia, towards 
Thrace, as appears from Acts xvii. 1. And if taken in the sense of ' first in respect 
to rank,' it belonged rather to Amphipolis, which was the capital of this district ot 
Macedonia, as appears from the following passage, Livii Hist. Lib. XLV. 29. Capita 
regionum, ubi concilia fierent, primae regionis Amphipolin, secundae Thessaloni- 
cen, &c. But the difficulty is not so great as it appears to be. For, though Amphi- 
polis was made the capital of the first district of Macedonia in the time of Paulus 
yEmilius, and therefore entitled to the name of irpwrq, it is not impossible that in a 
subsequent age, the preference was given to Philippi. Or even if Amphipolis still 
continued to be the capital of the district, or the seat of the Roman provincial go- 
vernment, yet the title npdjrri may have been claimed by the city of Philippi, though 
it were not the very first in point of rank. We meet with many instances of this 
kind, on the medals of the Greek cities, on which we find that more than one city of 
the same province assumed the title of npdjrri. St. Luke, therefore, Avho spent a long 
time at Philippi, and was well acquainted with the customs of the place, gave this 
city the title which it claimed, and which, according to the custom of the Greek 
cities, was inscribed probably on its coins. Hence it appears that the proposal made 
by Pierce to alter irpurj] tffs pepiSog to nparris ^piSos, is unnecessary." (Michaelis's Int. 
Vol. IV. pp. 152-154. Marsh's trans.) 

" ' Where prayer was wont to be made.' xvi. 13. This proseuchae signifies an ora- 
tory, a place appointed for prayer; in heathen countries, they were erected in seques- 
tered retreats, commonly on the banks of rivers (as here) or on the sea shore. Jose- 
phus has preserved the decree of the city of Halicarnassus, permitting the Jews to 
erect oratories, part of which is in the following terms: — 'We ordain that the Jews, 
who are willing, both men and women, do observe the Sabbaths and perform sacred 
rites according to the Jewish law, and build proseuchae by the sea-side, according to the 
custom, of their country ; and if any man, whether magistrate or private person, give 
them any hindrance or disturbance, he shall pay a fine to the city.' (Jos. Ant. lib. 
xiv. cap.' 10. Al. 24, — quoted by Williams.) 

" Many commentators, viz., Grotius, Drs. Whitby, Doddridge, and Lardner, agree 
with Josephus, Philo, and Juvenal, that these places of worship were synonymous 
with synagogues. But Calmet, Prideaux, and Hammond, contend that they were 



538 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

nearly the same, yet there was a real difference between them; the synagogues were 
withib the cities, while the proseuchae were without, in retired spots, particularly 
in heathen countries, by the river-side, with galleries or the shades of trees for their 
only shelter. Prideaux considers them to beof greater antiquity than the synagogues, 
and that they were formed by the Jews in open courts, that those who lived at a dis- 
tance from Jerusalem might offer their private worship as in the open courts of the 
Temple or Tabernacle. In the synagogues, Prideaux observes, public worship 
was performed, and in the proseuchae private prayer was used to be made. It is 
highly probable that these proseuchae were the same which are called in the Old 
Testament ' high places.' " (Hammond on Luke vi. 12, and Acts xvi. 13 — 16. 
Calmet's Diet, voce proseucha. Prideaux's Connec. part i. book iv. sub anno 444, 
vol. I. pp. 387—390, edit. 1720. Home's Introd.— quoted by Williams.) 

" ( And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira.' 
v. 14. It is a remarkable fact, that among the ruins of Thyatira, there is an inscrip- 
tion extant with the words 01 BA<E>EIE, the dyers. Wheler's Journey into Greece, 
vol. iii. p. 233. Spon. Miscellanea Eruditae Antiquitates, p. 113; from whence we 
learn that the art and trade of dyeing purple was carried on in that city." (Home's 
Introd. — Williams.) 

Such was the beginning of the propagation of the gospel in 
Greece, — such was the foundation of the first church ever planted 
east of the Hellespont ; and thus did Europe first receive the doc- 
trines of that faith, which now holds in all that mighty division of 
the world, a triumphant seat, and constitutes the universal religion 
of the nations that hold within themselves the sources of art, 
learning, — all the refinements of civilization, — and of the dominion 
of half the globe. Four pilgrims entered the city of Philippi, 
unknown, friendless, and scorned for their foreign, half-barbarian 
aspect. Strolling about from day to day, to find the means of 
executing their strange errand, they at last found a few Jewish 
women, sitting in a little retired place, on the banks of a nameless 
stream. To them they made known the message of salvation ; — 
one of the women with her household believed the gospel, and 
professed the faith of Jesus ; — and from this beginning did those 
glorious results advance, which in their progress have changed the 
face of Europe, revolutionized the course of empires, and modified 
the destiny of the world ! 

An incident soon occurred, however, which brought them into 
more public notice, though not in a very desirable manner. As 
they went out to the usual place of prayer, on the bank of the 
stream, they at last were noticed by a poor crazy girl, who, being 
deprived of reason, had been made a source of profit to a set of 
mercenary villains, who, taking advantage of the common super- 
stition of their countrymen about the supernatural endowments of 
such unfortunate persons, pretended that she was a Pythoness, in- 
dued by the Pythian Apollo with the spirit of prophecy ; for not 
only at Delphi, on his famous tripod, but also throughout Greece, 
he was believed to inspire certain females to utter his oracles, con- 



paul. 539 

cerning future events. The owners and managers of this poor 
girl therefore made a trade of her supposed soothsaying faculty, 
and found it a very profitable business, through the folly of the 
wise Greeks of Philippi. This poor girl had her crazy fancy struck 
by the appearance of the apostolic company, as they passed along 
the streets to their place of prayer, and following them, perceived, 
under the impulse of the strange influence that possessed her, the 
real character of Paul and his companions ; and cried out after 
them — " These men are the servants of the most high God, who 
show us the way of salvation." This she did daily for a long 
time, till at last, Paul, annoyed by this kind of proclamation thus 
made at his heels, turned about, and, by a single command, sub- 
dued the demoniac influence that possessed her, and restored her 
to the freedom of sense and thought. Of course she was now no 
longer the submissive instrument of the will of her mercenary 
managers, and it was with no small vexation that they found all 
chance of these easy gains was for ever gone. In their rage 
against the authors of what they deemed their calamity, they 
caught Paul and Silas, as the foremost of the apostolic company, 
and dragging them into the forum, or court-house, where the ma- 
gistrates were in session, they presented their prisoners as a down- 
right nuisance : " These men, who are Jews, do exceedingly trou- 
ble our city ; and teach customs which are not lawful for us to 
adopt nor observe, if we are to maintain the privileges of Roman 
citizens." What the latter part of the accusation referred to, in 
particular, was, it is not easy to say, and probably there was no very 
definite specification made by the accusers ; for the general preju- 
dice against the Jews was such, that the mob raised a clamor 
against them at once ; and the magistrates seeing in the apostles 
only some nameless foreign vagabonds, who having come into the 
city without any reasonable object in view, were disturbing the 
peace of the inhabitants, — had no hesitation whatever in ordering 
them to be punished in the most ignominious manner, and with- 
out any question or defense, conforming to the dictation of that 
universally divine and immaculate source of justice, — the voice of 
the people, — instantly had them stripped and flogged at the discre- 
tion of their persecutors. After having thus shamefully abused 
them, they did not dismiss them, but cast them into prison, and set 
their feet in the stocks. 

Here was fine business for the apostle and his companion ! 
" Come over into Macedonia and help us /" Such were the 



540 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

words of deep, agonizing entreaty, in which the beseeching Mace- 
donian had, in the night- vision, summoned the great apostle of the 
Gentiles to this new field of evangelizing labor. Taking that 
summons for a divine command, he had obeyed it — had crossed 
the wide Aegean, and sought in this great city of Macedonia, the 
occasions and the means of " helping" the idolatrous citizens to a 
knowledge of the truth as it was in Jesus. Week after week they 
had been inoffensively toiling in the faithful effort to answer this 
Macedonian cry for help ; and what was the result and the reward 
of all these exertions ? For no crime whatever, and for no reason 
except that they had rescued a gentle and unfortunate spirit from 
a most degrading thraldom to demoniac agencies, and to men more 
vile and wicked than demons, — they had been mobbed, — condemned 
on the principle that " the act of the many is above law," — stripped 
in the forum, and whipped there like thieves, — and at last thrown 
into the common jail among felons, with every additional injury 
that could be inflicted by their persecutors, being fettered so that 
they could not repose their sore and exhausted bodies. Was not 
here enough to try the patience of even an apostle ? What man 
would not have burst out in furious vexation against the beguiling 
vision which had led them away into a foreign land, among those 
who were disposed to repay their assiduous " help" by such treat- 
ment? Thus might Paul and Silas have expressed their vexation, 
if they had indeed been misled by a mere human enthusiasm ; but 
they knew Him in whom they had trusted, and were well assured 
that He would not deceive them. So far from giving way to des- 
pondency and silence, they uplifted their voices in praise ! Yes, 
praise to the God and Father of Jesus Christ, that he had ac- 
counted them worthy to suffer thus for the glory of his name. 
" At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and 
the prisoners heard them." In the dreary darkness, — inclosed be- 
tween massive walls, and bound in weighty fetters, their spirits 
rose in prayer, — doubtless for those persecutors whom they came 
over to " help," and not for themselves, — since their souls were 
already so surely stayed on God. To him they raised their voices 
in praise, for their own peace and joy in believing. Far from 
sinking like those inspired by the mere impulses of human ambi- 
tion or wild enthusiasm, — they passed the dreary night, not 

" In silence or in fear, — 
They shook the depths of the prison gloom, 
With their hymns of lofty cheer. — 
Amid the storm they sang;" 



PAUL. 541 

for He whom they thus invoked did not leave them in their heroic 
endurance, without a most convincing testimony that their prayers 
and their songs had come up in remembrance before him. In the 
midst of their joyous celebration of this persecution, while their 
wondering fellow-prisoners, waked from their slumbers by this 
unparalleled noise, were listening in amazement to this manifesta- 
tion of the manner of spirit with which their new companions 
were disposed to meet their distresses, — a mighty earthquake shook 
the city, and heaved the whole prison-walls on their foundations, 
so that all the firmly barred doors were burst open, and, what was 
more remarkable, all the chains fell from the prisoners. The jailer 
waking up amidst this horrible crash, and seeing all the prison-doors 
open, supposed that the prisoners had all escaped ; and knowing 
how utterly certain would be his ruin if his charge should thus be 
lost, — in a fit of vexation and despair, he drew his sword, and 
would have instantly killed himself, had not Paul, seeing through 
the darkness the frensied actions of the wretched man, called out 
to him in a loud voice, clear and distinct amid the dreadful din, 
" Do thyself no harm, for we are all here." 

Hearing these consolatory words, the jailer called for a light, 
and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and 
Silas, saying — " Sirs ! What must I do to be saved T They re- 
plied — " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, 
with all thy house." The jailer, of course, spoke of being saved 
merely from present danger, — and appalled by the shock of the 
earthquake, concluded at once that it had some connexion with 
the prayers and songs of the two Jewish prisoners, whom he knew 
to have been unjustly punished and imprisoned. He supposed, 
therefore, that from those who were the occasion of the awful oc- 
currence, he might best learn the means of escaping its destructive 
consequences. But his alarmed inquiries were made instrumental 
in teaching him the way of escape from a peril of far greater mag- 
nitude, threatening his spirit with the awful ruin that would fall 
at last on all the sinful opposers of the truth. The two impri- 
soned preachers then proclaimed to him the word of the Lord, and 
not only to him, but to all that were in his house. No sooner had 
the jailer thus learned, by their eloquent words, the real character 
and objects of his prisoners, than he immediately determined to 
make them all the atonement in his power, for the shameful treat- 
ment which they had received from his fellow-citizens. He took 
them that same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and 



542 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

was baptized with all his house. Of course he could no longer 
suffer those who were the authors of his hopes of salvation to lie 
any longer among felons ; and he immediately brought them out 
of the jail into his own house, and gave them food, making it a 
sort of festal occasion for himself and his whole family, who were 
all rejoicing with him in the knowledge of the gospel. When it 
was day, the magistrates sent the officers of justice with a verbal 
order for the release of the two prisoners, of whose abominable 
usage they were now quite ashamed, after a night's reflexion, with- 
out the clamors of a mob to incite them ; and perhaps also their 
repentance may have been promoted by the great earthquake during 
the night, for which the Greeks and Romans would, as usual, seek 
some moral occasion, looking on it, of course, as a prodigy, ex- 
pressive of the anger of the gods, who might be supposed, perhaps, 
to be indignant at the flagrant injustice committed against these 
two friendless strangers. But however satisfactory this atonement 
might seem to the magistrates, Paul was by no means disposed to 
let them off so quietly, after using him and Silas in this outrageous 
manner, in absolute defiance of all forms of law and justice. To 
this permission thus given him to sneak off quietly, he therefore 
returned the indignant answer — " They have openly beaten us un- 
condemned, though we are Roman citizens, and they have cast us 
into prison ; and now do they thrust us out so slily ? No, indeed ; 
but let them come themselves and fetch us out." This was alarm- 
ing news, indeed, to the magistrates. Here they were found guilty 
of having violated " the sacred privilege of Roman citizenship !" 
— a privilege which always shielded its possessor from irregular 
tyranny, and required, throughout the Roman world, that he 
should never be subjected to punishment without the most open 
and formal investigation of the charge ; — a privilege, too, whose 
violation would bring down on them the most remorseless ven- 
geance of the imperial fountain of Roman power. So nothing 
would do, but they must submit to the uncomfortable necessity of 
bringing down their magisterial dignity to the low business of vi- 
siting their poor, abused prisoners in the jail, and humbly apolo- 
gizing for their own cruelty. They therefore came to the prison, 
and brought out their abused victims, respectfully requesting them 
to depart out of the city. The two prisoners accordingly con- 
sented to retire quietly, without making any more trouble for their 
persecutors. Going first to the house of their kind hostess, Lydia, 
they saw the brethren who had believed the gospel there, during their 



paul. 543 

apostolic ministrations, and having exhorted them, bade them fare- 
well, and in company with their two companions, Timothy and 
Luke, left the city. 

Turning southwestward towards Greece proper, and keeping 
near the coast, they came next to Amphipolis, a Macedonian city 
on the river Strymon, near where it flows into the Strymonic gulf; 
but making no stay that is mentioned, they continued their jour- 
ney in the same direction, to Apollonia, an inland town on the 
river Chabrius, in the peninsula of Chalcidice ; whence turning 
northwest they came next to Thessalonica, a large city at the head 
of the great Thermaic gulf. In this place was a synagogue of 
the Jews, — the first that they had found in their European travels ; 
for in this thriving commercial place the Jews were, and always 
have been, in such large numbers, that they were abundantly able 
to keep their own house of worship and religious instruction, and 
had independence enough, as well as regard for the institutions 
of their fathers, to attend in large numbers weekly at this sanc- 
tuary. So zealous and successful indeed had they been in their 
devotion to their religion, that they had drawn into a profession of 
the faith of the God of Israel, a vast number of Greeks who at- 
tended worship with them ; for such was the superior purity of 
the religion of the Jews, which regarded the one only living God, 
who was to be worshiped, not in the debasing forms of statues, but 
in spirit and truth, that almost every place throughout the regions 
of Grecian civilization, in which the Jews had planted their little 
commercial settlements, and reared the houses of religious instruc- 
tion, showed abundance of such instances as this, in which the 
bright intellectual spirit of the Greek readily appreciated the ex- 
alted character and the holy truth of the faith owned by the sons 
of Israel, and felt at once how far more suited to the conceptions 
of Hellenic genius was such a religion, than the degrading poly- 
theism, which the philosophy and poetry of a thousand years had 
striven in vain to redeem from its inherent absurdities. Among 
these intelligent but mixed congregations, Paul and his companions 
entered, and taking advantage of the freedom of religious dis- 
course allowed to all by the order of a Jewish synagogue, they on 
three successive sabbaths reasoned with them out of the scrip- 
tures, on that great and all-absorbing point in the original apostolic 
theology, — that the Christ, the Messiah, so generally understood to 
be distinctly foretold in the Hebrew scriptures, was always de- 
scribed as destined to undergo great sufferings during his earthly 

71 



544 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

career, and after a death of shame, was to rise from the grave ; — 
and at last concluded with the crowning doctrine — " This Jesus, 
whom I preach to you, is this Christ." 

This glorious annunciation of a new and spiritual dispensation, 
was at once well received by a vast majority of the hearers, — but 
more especially by the Greeks, whose conceptions of the religion 
which they had espoused, were far more rational and exalted than 
even the notions of the original Israelites, whose common ideas of 
a Redeemer being connected and mixed up, as their whole faith 
was, so much with what was merely national and patriotic in their 
feelings, had led them to disregard the necessarily spiritual nature 
of the new revelation expected, and had caused them almost uni- 
versally to image the Messiah as a mere Jewish conqueror, who 
was to aim mainly at the restoration of the ancient dominion of 
long-humbled Judah. Therefore, while the Greeks readily and 
joyfully accepted this glorious completion of the faith whose be- 
ginnings they had learned under the old covenant, — the Jews for 
the most part scornfully rejected the revelation which presented to 
them their Messiah as " a man of sorrows," — a Galilean, — a Naza- 
rene, — one without pomp or power ; the grand achievment of whose 
earthly career was that most ignominious death on the cross. No : 
this was not the Messiah for whom they looked and longed, as the 
glorious restorer of Israel, and the bloody conqueror of the Gen- 
tiles ; and it was therefore with the greatest indignation that they 
saw the great majority of those converts from heathenism, whom 
they had made with so much pains, now wholly carried away with 
the humbling doctrines of these new teachers. Thus " moved 
with envy" the unbelieving Jews resorted to their usual expedient 
of stirring up a mob ; and, accordingly, certain low fellows of the 
baser sort among them, gathered a gang, and set the whole city in 
an uproar, — an effect which might seem surprising, from a cause 
apparently so trifling and inadequate, did not every month's obser- 
vation on similar occurrences, among people that call themselves 
the most enlightened and free on the globe, suffice to show every 
reader, that to " set the whole city in an uproar," is the easiest 
thing in the world, and one more often done by " certain lewd 
fellows of the baser sort," about the merest trifle, than in any other 
way. And here then again, is another of those fac-simile exhibi- 
tions of true human nature, with which the honest and self-evi- 
dent story of Luke abounds ; and in this particular instance what 
makes him so beautifully graphical and natural in his description 



paul. 545 

of this manifestation of public opinion, is the fact that he himself 
was a spectator of the whole proceedings at Thessalonica, — and 
therefore gives an eyewitness story. The mob being thus gather- 
ed, immediately made a desperate assault on the house of Jason, 
where Paul and Silas were known to lodge, and sought to drag 
them out to the people. (One would think that this was a mere 
prophetic account of perfectly similar occurrences, that pass every 
month under the noses of modern Christians.) Paul and Silas, 
however, had been wise enough to make oif at the first alarm, and 
had found some place of concealment, beyond the reach of the 
mob. Provoked at not obtaining the prime object of the attack, 
the rascals then seized Jason and other Christians whom they 
found there, and dragged them before the magistrates, crying — 
" These that have turned the world upside down, have come hither 
also, — whom Jason has entertained ; and they all do contrary to 
the statutes of Caesar, saying that there is another king, — one 
Jesus." This communication of the mode in which the great 
mundane inversion had been effected by these four travelers and 
their new converts, excited no small commotion among all the in- 
habitants ; for it amounted to a distinct charge of a treasonable 
conspiracy against the Roman government, and could not fail to 
bring down the most disagreeable consequences on the city, if it 
was made known, even though it should amount to nothing. How- 
ever, the whole proceedings against Jason and his friends were 
conducted with a moderation truly commendable, and far above 
any mob-action in these enlightened times ; for without any per- 
sonal injury, they simply satisfied themselves with taking security 
of Jason and his companions, that they should keep the peace, and 
attempt nothing treasonable, and then quietly let them go. Who 
would expect any modern American mob to release their victims 
in this moderate and reasonable way? 

" Amphipolis is a city of Macedonia, on the confines of Thrace, called so, as Thu- 
cydides informs us, (lib. iv. p. 321,) because the rivers encompassed it. Suidas and 
others place it in Thracia, giving it the name of the Nine "Ways. It had the name 
likewise of Chrysopolis. (Wells, Whitby, Williams.) 

" Apollonia, a city of Macedonia, lying between Amphipolis and Thessalonica. 
Geographers affirm that there were fourteen cities and two islands of that name. 
Stephanus reckons twenty-five. (Whitby, Williams.) 

" Thessalonica, a large and populous city and sea-port of Macedonia, the capital of 
the four districts into which the Romans divided that country, after its conquest by 
Paulus iEmilius. It was situated on the Thermaic gulf, and was anciently called 
Thermae; but, being rebuilt by Philip, the father of Alexander, after his victory 
over the Thessalians, it then received the name of Thessalonica. 

" At the time of writing the Epistle to the Thessalonians, Thessalonica was the 
residence of the Proconsul, who governed the province of Macedonia, and of the 



546 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Quaestor, who had the charge of the imperial revenues. Besides being the seat of go- 
vernment, this port carried on an extensive commerce, which caused a great influx 
of strangers from all quarters; so that Thessalonica was remarkable for the number, 
wealth, and learning of its inhabitants. The Jews were extremely numerous here. 
The modern name of this place is Salonichi : it is the chief port of modern Greece, 
and has a population of sixty thousand persons, twelve thousand of whom are Jews. 
According to Dr. Clarke, this place is the same now as it was then ; a set of turbu- 
lent Jews constituted a very considerable part of its population; even as when Paul 
came here from Philippi to preach the gospel to the Thessalonians, the Jews were 
numerous enough to ' set all the city in an uproar.' " (Williams.) 

After this specimen of popular excitement, it was too manifest 
that nothing could be done just then at Thessalonica by the apos- 
tolic ministers of Christ, and that very night therefore the brethren 
sent off Paul and Silas in the darkness, to Beroea, a city also in 
Macedonia, about fifty miles from Thessalonica, exactly west, being 
on the same parallel of latitude, standing on the south bank of the 
river Astroeus. Arriving there, they went into the synagogue of 
the Jews, who were here for the most part of a much better char- 
acter than the mean Jews of the great trading city of Thessalonica ; 
and being more independent and spiritual in their religious no- 
tions, were also much better prepared to appreciate the spiritual 
doctrines preached by Paul and Silas. They listened respectfully 
to the new preachers, and when the usual references were made 
to the standard passages in the Old Testament, universally sup- 
posed to describe the Messiah, they diligently examined the pas- 
sages for themselves, and studied out their correspondence with 
the events in the life of Jesus, which were mentioned by his 
preachers as perfectly parallel with these remarkable prophecies. 
The natural result of this nobly candid and rational examination of 
this great question was, that many of these fair-minded and con- 
siderate Jews of Beroea professed their perfect conviction that 
Jesus was the Christ, and had by the actions of his life fully an- 
swered and completed the prophetic types of the Messiah. Here, 
too, as in Thessalonica, the Greek proselytes to Judaism readily 
and heartily accepted the doctrines of Jesus. But the gospel mes- 
sengers were not long allowed the enjoyment of this fine field of 
apostolic enterprise ; for their spiteful foes in Thessalonica, hearing 
how things were going on in Boroea, took the pains and trouble to 
journey all the way to that place, for the express purpose of hunt- 
ing out the preachers of Jesus by a new mob : and in this they 
were so successful, that the brethren, according to the established 
rules of Christian expediency, immediately sent away Paul to the 
south, because he seemed to be the grand object of the persecu- 



paul. 547 

tion ; but Silas and Timothy being less obnoxious, still remained 
in Beroea. 

" Beroea was a city of Macedonia; a great and populous city. Lucian de Asino, 
p. 639. D." (Whitby, Williams.) It was situated to the west of Thessalonica, and 
not " south " as Wells absurdly says, " almost directly on the way to Athens." 

HIS VISIT TO ATHENS. 

Paul, thus obeying the command given by Jesus in his first 
charge to the original twelve, went on under the guidance of his 
Beroean brethren, according to his own request, by sea, to Athens, 
where he parted from them, giving them charge to tell Silas and 
Timothy to come on after him, as soon as their commission in 
Macedonia would allow. He then went about Athens, occupying 
the interval while he waited for them, in observations upon that 
most glorious of all earthly seats of art and taste. As he wandered 
on, an unheeded stranger among the still splendid and beautiful 
though then half-decaying works, which the combined devotion, 
pride, and patriotism, of the ancient Athenians had raised to their 
gods, to their country and its heroes, — in the beautifully pictu- 
resque yet simple expression of the apostolic historian — " Paul saw 
the city wholly given to idolatry." How many splendid associa- 
tions does it call up before the mental eye of the classical scholar 
who reads it ! As the apostle wandered along among these thou- 
sand works of art, still so hallowed in the fond regard of the 
scholar, the antiquarian, the man of taste, the poet, and the patriot, 
his spirit was moved within him, when he everywhere saw how 
the whole city was given to idolatry. Not a spot but had its altar : 
every grove was consecrated to its peculiar nymphs or genii, — to 
its Dryads and its Fauns ; every stream and fountain had the com- 
memorative marble for its own bright Naiad ; — the very winds had 
their immortal "tower," with its still vivid tablets, personifying 
and enlivening the mysterious powers of the air ; — along the plain 
shone the splendid colonnades of the yet mighty temples of Jupi- 
ter and the Olympian gods ; — here and there, on the lower hills, 
stood the stately ranges that inclosed the shrines of Erectheus and 
Theseus, the deified kings of old, and of the later foreign Caesars ; 
and above all, on the high Acropolis, the noble Parthenon rose 
over the glorious city, proclaiming to the eye of the distant tra- 
veler the honors of the virgin goddess of wisdom, of taste, and 
philosophic virtue, whose name crowned the city, of which she 
was, throughout all the reign of Polytheism, the guardian deity. 

These splendid but mournful testimonies of the misplaced en- 



548 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

ergies of that inborn spirit of devotion, which, all over the world, 
in all times, moves the heart of man to the worship of that Eternal 
power of whose existence he is ever conscious, touched the spirit 
of Paul with other emotions than those of delight and admiration. 
The eye of the citizen of classical and splendid Tarsus was not 
indeed blind to the beauties of these works of art, whose fame was 
spread throughout the civilized world, and with whose historic 
and poetic glories his eye and ear had long been made familiar ; 
but over them all was cast a moral and spiritual gloom which 
darkened all these high and rich remembrances, otherwise so 
purely bright. Under the impulse of such feelings, he immedi- 
ately sought occasion to make an attack on this dominant spirit of 
idolatry. He accordingly, in his usual theatre of exertion, — the 
Jewish synagogue, — freely made known the new revelation of the 
truth in Jesus, both to the Jews, and to those Gentiles who reve- 
renced the God of Israel, and listened to religious instruction in 
the Jewish house of worship. With such effect did he proclaim 
the truth, and with such fervid, striking oratory, that the Atheni- 
ans, always admirers and cultivators of eloquence, soon had their 
attention very generally drawn to the foreign teacher, who was 
publishing these very extraordinary doctrines, in a style of elo- 
quence so peculiar and irregular, and attractive to them by novelty, 
though marked by numerous Oriental barbarisms. The conse- 
quence was, that his audiences were soon extended beyond the 
regular attendents on the Jewish synagogue worship, and many of 
the philosophic sages of the Athenian schools sat listening to the 
apostle of Jesus. They soon undertook to encounter him in ar- 
gument ; and Paul now resorting to that most classic ground, the 
Athenian forum, or Agora, was not slow to meet them. On the 
spot where Socrates once led the minds of his admiring hearers to 
the noble conceptions of moral truth, Paul now stood uttering to 
unaccustomed ears, the far more noble conceptions of a divine truth, 
that as far outwent the moral philosophy of " Athenia's wisest son," 
as did the life, and death, and triumphs of the crucified Son of 
Man, the course and fate of the hemlock-drinker. Greatly sur- 
prised were his philosophical hearers, at these very remarkable 
doctrines, before unheard of in Greece, and various were the opin- 
ions and comments of the puzzled sages. Some of those of the 
Epicurean and Stoic schools, more particularly, had their pride and 
scorn quite moved at the seeming presumption of this fluent 
speaker, (who without diffidence or doubt uttered his strange doc- 



paul. 549 

trineSj though characterized by a style full of irregularities, and a 
dialect remarkably distinguished by barbarous provincialisms,) and 
scornfully asked — " What does this vagabond mean?" Others, ob- 
serving that he claimed such divine honors for Jesus, the founder 
of his faith, remarked, that " he seemed to be a preacher of foreign 
deities." At last, determined to have their difficulties resolved by 
the very highest authority, they took him before the very ancient 
and venerable court of the Areopagus, which was the supreme 
council in all matters that concerned religion. Here they invited 
him to make a full communication of the distinctive articles of his 
new faith, because they felt an honest desire to have the particu- 
lars of a subject never before introduced to their notice ; and a vast 
concourse stood by to hear that grand object of life to the news- 
hunting Athenians, — " a new thing." 

" With regard to the application of babbler, Eustathius gives two senses of the 
word anepjxoXoyos. 1. The Attics called those aireppoXoyoi who conversed in the market, 
and places of merchandise. (In Odys. B. ad finem.) And Paul was disputing with 
those he met. in the market-place. 2. It is used of those who, from some false opinions, 
boasted unreasonably of their learning. (Idem.) CEcumenius says, a little bird that 
gathered up the seeds scattered in the market-place, was called uirepiio'Xoyos • in this 
etymology, Suidas, Phavorinus, the scholiast upon Aristophanes de Avibus, p. 569, 
and almost all grammarians agree. (Cave's Lives of the Apostles. Whitby's An- 
not. Williams on Pearson.) 

" ETCppMyo? . This word is properly used of those little insignificant birds which 
support a precarious existence by picking up seeds scattered by the sower, or left 
above ground after the soil has been harrowed. See Max. Tyr. Diss. 13, p. 133, 
Harpocr., Aristoph. Av. 232, and the Scholiast, and Plutarch, T. 5, 50, edit. Reisk. 
It was metaphorically applied also to paupers who prowled about the market-place, 
and lived by picking up any thing which might be dropped by buyers and sellers; 
and likewise to persons who gleaned in the corn fields. See Eustath. on Horn. Od. 
c 241. Hence it was at length applied to all persons of mean condition, who, as we 
say, ' live on their wits.' Thus it is explained by Harpocrates, evreXfc, mean and con- 
temptible. And so Philo 1021 c." (Bloomfield's Annot. Acts xvii. 18.) 

" The Areopagus was a place in Athens, where the senate usually assembled, and 
took its name (as some think) from "Apris, which is the same as Mars, the god of war, 
who was the first person tried here for having killed Apollo's son. Others think that, 
because aprjs sometimes signajies fighting, murder, or violence of any kind, and that 
Kayos is properly a rock, or rising hill, it therefore seems to denote a court situated 
upon an eminence, (as the Areopagus was,) where causes of murder, &c., were tried. 
This court at present is out of the city, but in former times it stood almost in the 
middle of it. Its foundations, which are still standing, are built with square stones 
of prodigious size, in the form of a semicircle, and support a terrace or platform, of 
about a hundred and forty paces, which was the court where this senate was held. 
In the midst of it, there was a tribunal cut in a rock, and all about were seats, also of 
stone, where the senate heard causes in the open air, without any covering, and (as 
some say) in the night time, that they might not be moved to compassion at the sight 
of any criminal that was brought before them. This judicature was held in such 
high esteem for its uprightness, that when the Roman proconsuls ruled there, it was 
a very common thing for them to refer difficult causes to the judgment of the A.reo- 
pagites. After the loss of their liberty, however, the authority of the senate declined, 
so that in the apostles r times, the Areopagus was not so much a court of judicature 
as a common rendezvous, where all curious and inquisitive persons, who spent their 
time in nothing else, but either in hearing or telling some new thing, were accus- 
tomed to meet, Acts xvii. 21. Notwithstanding, they appeared still to have retained 
the privilege of canonizing all gods that were allowed public worship ; and there- 



550 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

fore St. Paul was brought before them as an assertor and preacher of a Deity, whom 
they had not. yet admitted among them. It does not appear that he was brought be- 
fore them as a criminal, but merely as a man who had a new worship to propose to a 
people religious above all others, but who took care that no strange worship should 
be received on a footing of a tolerated religion, till it had the approbation of a court 
appointed to judge such matters. The address of the court to St. Paul — \ May we 
know what this doctrine is, whereof thou speakest V implies rather a request to a 
teacher, than an interrogatory to a criminal; and accordingly his reply has not the 
least air of an apology suiting a person accused, but is one continued information of 
important truths, such as it became a teacher or benefactor, rather than a person ar- 
raigned for crime to give. He was therefore neither acquitted nor condemned, and 
dismissed as a man coram non judice. We are indeed told, that when they heard of 
' the resurrection of the dead,' some mocked, and others said — 'We will hear thee 
again of this matter,' putting off the audience to an indefinite time; so that nothing 
was left him but to depart." (Calmet's Commentary. Beausobre's and Hammond's 
Annot., and Warburton's Div. Leg. Williams.) 

" That Athens was wholly enslaved to idolatry, has been abundantly proved by our 
philological illustrators, especially the indefatigable Wetstein, from Pausan. Attic. 
I. 24; Strabo 10, p. 472, c; Lucian, t. 1. Prometh. p. 180; Liv. 45, 27. So also Pau- 
san. in Attic, c. 18, 24, (cited by Pearce and Doddridge,) who tells us, that Athens 
had more images than all the rest of Greece ; and Petron. Satir. c. 17, who humor- 
ously says — ' It was easier to find a god than a man there.' " (Bloomf. Annot.) 

" K<zi iv rrj ayopa. Agora. Of the market-places at Athens, of which there were 
many, the most celebrated w T ere the Old and the New Forum. The former was in the 
Ceramicus, a very ample space, part within and part without the city. See Meurs. 
Dissert, de Ceramico Gemino, § 46, and Potter's Archaeolog. 1, 8, p. 30. The latter 
was outside of the Ceramicus, in a place called Eretria. See Meur. Ath. Attic. 1. 1. 
c. 6. And this seems to be the one here'meant. For no forum, except the Cerami- 
cus and the Eretriacum, was called, absolutely, ayopa, but had a name to denote which 
was meant, as Areopagiticum, Hippodamium, Piraeum, &c. In process of time, and 
at the period when Paul was at Athens, the forum was transferred from the Cerami- 
cus into the Eretria; a change which, indeed, had been introduced in the time of 
Augustus; and that this was the most freqaented part of the city, we learn from 
Strabo 10, p. 447. Besides, the Eretriac forum was situated before the croa, or por- 
tico, in which the Stoics, of whom mention is just after made, used to hold their 
public discourses. It was moreover called kvk\o;, from its round form." 

""Apsiov -ayov, Mars' Hill. Udyog signifies properly a high situation. This was a 
hill opposite to that of the citadel on the west ; as we learn from Herod. 8, 52. [See 
the passages produced supra, to which I add Liv. 26, 44. Tumulum quern Mercurii 
vocant. Bloomfield.] It was so called, either because it had been consecrated to 
Mars, (as the Campius Martius at Rome,) or because (as Pausanius relates, Att. C. 
28) Mars, when he had slain Halyrrothius, son of Neptune, was the first who there 
pleaded a capital cause, which took place before the twelve gods. The judges used 
to sit by night, and sub dio ; and whatever was done w 7 as kept very secret, [whence 
the proverb ' Apco-ayirov oiwirriXorepos, to w T hich may be compared ours, ' as grave as a 
Judge? Bloomf.] They gave their judgment, not viva voce, but in writing. Nor 
were any admitted into the number of Areopagists but persons of noble birth, of un- 
spotted morality, and eminent for justice and equity. See more in Meurs. de Areo- 
pago." (Kuin. Bloomf. Annot.) 

" A new thing. 1 ' A remarkable coincidence is observable between Luke's inci- 
dental remark, (Acts xvii. 21,) and Demosthenes's characteristic hit at the Athenians 
(i. Philippic.) for their devotion to news-hunting. See Kuinoel for other references. 

Paul taking his stand there, in that splendid scene, uttered in a 
bold tone, and in his noblest style, the great truths which he was 
divinely consecrated to reveal. Never yet had Athens, in her 
most glorious state, heard a discourse which, for solemn beauty 
and lofty eloquence, could equal this brief declaration of the pro- 
vidence of God in the religion of his creatures. Never did the 
world see an orator in a sublimer scene, or in one that could 



PAUL. 551 

awaken higher emotions in those who heard, or him who spoke. 
He stood on the hill of Mars, with Athens beneath and around 
him, and the mighty Acropolis rising with its " tiara of proud 
towers," walls, and temples, on the west, — bounding and crowning 
the view in that direction : — to the northeast lay the forum, the 
late scene of his discussions, and beyond lay the philosophic 
Academia, around and through which rolled the flowery Cephisus. 
Before him sat the most august and ancient court in the Grecian 
world, waiting for the revelation of his solemn commission respect- 
ing the new deities which he was expected to propose as an addi- 
tion to their polytheistic list : — around him were the sages of the 
Athenian schools, listening in grave but curious attention for the 
new things which the eastern stranger had brought to their 
ears. The apostle raised his eyes to all the monuments of Athe- 
nian devotion which met the view on every side. Before him, on 
the high Acropolis, was the mighty temple of the Athenian Mi- 
nerva ; on the plain beyond, was the splendid shrine of the Olym- 
pian Jove ; on his right was the temple of Theseus, the deified 
ancient king of Attica, who laid the first foundation of her glories ; 
and near were the new piles which the later Grecian adulation had 
consecrated to the worship of her foreign conquerors — to the dei- 
fied Caesars. Beginning in that tone of dignified politeness, which 
always characterized his address towards the great ones of earth, 
he won their hearts and their attention by a courteously compli- 
mentary allusion to the devout though misguided zeal, whose solid 
tokens everywhere surrounded him. " Ye men of Athens ! I see 
in all places that you are very religious. For passing along and 
gazing at the shrines of your devotion, I found an altar on which 
was written, — ' To the unknown God :' — Him, therefore, whom, 
not knowing, you worship, I preach to you." Adopting this inci- 
dental observation as the basis of his more general remarks, the 
apostle went on to enlarge their view of the character of the Deity, 
whom, though in this instance professing their ignorance of him, 
they had, in such numerous tokens of blind infatuation, degraded 
by dividing his noble attributes among idols, created by their own 
fanciful inventions, and imaged in all the fascinating charms in 
which genius, taste, and art, could embody them. That God, 
whom he preached to them, the Maker of the world and all things 
in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, dwelt not in shrines made 
with hands, nor is served by men's hands needing and thing, him- 
self giving to all life and breath everywhere. The Creator of all 



• 



552 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

nations, he had ordained the periods of their power and existence, 
and the limits of their dominion. He had inspired them all with 
a disposition to seek him, if indeed they could by groping find 
him, although not far from every one of his creatures, to whom 
he was the source of life and motion, — the father and the spirit 
of all being. How base then for his children to degrade his vast 
and incomprehensible glories by assimilating them to material ob- 
jects, or representing them in the forms of human invention ! 
These errors into which the nations of the world had fallen, in 
groping through the darkness after the universally acknowledged 
deity, God, mercifully overlooking, now everywhere enjoined on 
all men a change and a regeneration of religious sentiment. There- 
fore had he appointed a day in which he would judge the world 
in justice, by the man whom he had appointed, having given as- 
surance thereof to all men in raising him from the dead. In this 
splendid though brief discourse, it deserves notice how readily and 
completely, on all occasions, Paul accommodated himself to the 
circumstances of his hearers. His style on this occasion, notwith- 
standing its characteristic Hebrew barbarisms, is remarkably pro- 
tracted and rounded in its periods, highly cumulative in structure, 
and harmonious in its almost rhythmical flow ; — the whole bearing 
the character which was best suited to the fancy and fashion of the 
Athenians, — though still very decidedly marked by peculiarities of 
his eastern origin. Here, too, he gave them a favorable impres- 
sion of his knowledge of the Grecian classics, by his apt and 
happy quotation from Aratus, the philosophical poet of his native 
province, Cilicia. " For we also are his offspring." 

Very religious. — This is unquestionably the just meaning of xvii. 22. See Beza, 
Piscator, Grotius, Hammond, Kuinoel, Bloomfield, and all the standard commenta- 
tors. " Too superstitious" is a form of expression so insulting, as to be at once un- 
worthy of the courteous apostle and his philosophic hearers. 

" The objects of your devotion.'" The word ae^aafiaTa (sebasmata) is, in the common 
version, very incorrectly translated " devotions." It refers, in fact, not to the act of 
devotion, but the object of devotion. See any of the Lexicons. The connexion here 
also is enough to show that the apostle meant the gods of Athens and their altars. 

" ' To the Unknown God.' (xvii. 23.) — It is very evident from the testimony of 
Laertius, that the Athenians had altars in their public places, inscribed to unknown 
gods or demons. He informs us, that when Athens was visited with a great plague, 
the inhabitants invited Epimenides, the philosopher, to lustrate their city. The me- 
thod adopted by him was to carry several sheep to the Areopagus ; whence they were 
left to wander as they pleased, under the observation of persons sent to attend them. 
As each sheep lay down, it was sacrificed on the spot to the propitious god; (in Vita 
Epimen. lib. xi. ;) and as the Athenians were ignorant of what god was propitious, 
they erected an altar with this inscription, 6EOIE ALIAS, KAI EYPQIIHS. KAI 
AIBHYE, 9E12 ArNfiSTQ KAI SENS:- To the gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa, 
to the strange and unknown god. 

" On the architrave of a Doric portico at Athens, which was standing when that 
city was visited, about sixty years since, by Dr. Chandler and Mr. Stuart, is a Greek 



paul. 553 

inscription to the following purport: — 'The people' [of Athens have erected this 
fabric] ' with the donations to Minerva Archegetia,' [or the conductress,] ' by the god 
Caius Julius Caesar and his son, the god Augustus, when Nicias was Archon.' 
Over the middle of the pediment was a statue of Lucius Caesar, with this inscrip- 
tion : — ' The people' [honor] ' Lucius Caesar, the son of the Emperor Augustus 
Caesar, the son of the god.' There was also a statue to Julia, the daughter to Au- 
gustus, and the mother of Lucius, thus inscribed : — ' The Senate of the Areopagus, 
and the Senate of the Six Hundred,' [dedicate this statue to] ' the goddess Julia, 
Augusta, Provident.' These public memorials supply an additional proof of the 
correctness of Paul's observations on the Athenians, that they were too much ad- 
dicted to the adoption of objects for worship and devotion." (Hammond's Annota- 
tions, Cave's Lives of the Apostles, Home's Introduction, Williams on Pearson.) 

" Served with men's hands. 1 ' The Greek word depa~ev£T(u (therapeuctai) has a sense 
which cannot be fully expressed in English by any one word. The common Eng- 
lish version translates it " worshiped," and this is undoubtedly just to a part of its 
force. But the primary meaning of the Greek word is " to serve," or " wait upon," 
as a servant attends his master, or as a friend assists another in need, or as an infe- 
rior being worships a superior. The expression — " as though he needed any thing" 
— contains a reference to the included sense of " assisting one in need of attend- 
ence." 

As he concluded, however, with the solemn declaration of the 
great foundation-truth of Christianity, — that God had raised Jesus 
from the dead, — there was a very general burst of contempt from 
the more scornful portion of his audience, at the idea of any thing 
so utterly against all human probability. Of the immortality of 
the soul, the divinest of their own philosophers had reasoned, — ■ 
and it was by most of the Athenian sects considered, on the whole, 
tolerably well established ; but the notion of the actual revivifica- 
tion of the perished body, — the recall of the scattered dust and 
ashes, to the same breathing, moving, acting, thinking form, which 
for ages had ceased to be, — all amounted to a degree of improba- 
ble absurdity, — that not the wildest Grecian speculator had ever 
dreamed of. So the proud Epicureans and Stoics turned sneer- 
ingly away from the barbarian stranger who had come so far to 
try their credulity with such a tale ; and thus they for ever lost 
the opportunity to learn from this new-opened fountain of truth, a 
wisdom that the long researches of all the Athenian schools had 
never reached and could never reach, without the light of this 
truly divine eastern source, which they now so thoughtlessly 
scorned. But there were some more considerate among the hear- 
ers of the apostle, who had learned that it is the most decided 
characteristic of a true philosopher, to reject nothing at first sight 
or hearing, though it may happen to be contrary to his own per- 
sonal experience and learning ; and these, weighing the matter 
with respectful doubt, told Paul — " We will hear thee again about 
this." Without any further attempt to unfold the truth at that 
time, Paul departed from the Areopagus, and no more uplifted his 
voice on the high places of Athens, in testimony of that solemn 



554 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

revelation of the Son of Man from the dead, — the conviction of 
whose truth, in spite of all philosophic sneers, was destined to 
oversweep the whole of that world which they knew, and a new 
one beyond it, and to exalt the name of that despised wanderer to 
a fame compared with which that of Socrates should be small. 
Paul was, however, afterwards visited by several of those who 
heard him before the Areopagus ; who, after a free, conversational 
discussion of the whole subject, and a more familiar exhibition of 
the evidences of his remarkable assertions, professed their satisfac- 
tion with the arguments, and believed. Among these, even one 
of the judges of the august Areopagus, by name Dionysius, owned 
himself a disciple of Jesus. Besides him is mentioned a woman 
named Damaris ; and others not specified, are said to have be- 
lieved. 

" ( Dionysius the Areopagite.' Acts xvii. 34. — Dionysius is said to have been bred 
at Athens in all the arts and sciences : at the age of twenty-five he went into Egypt to 
learn astronomy. At the time of our Savior's death he was at Heliopolis, where, 
observing the darkness that attended the passion, he cried out thus: — ' That certain- 
ly, at that time, either God himself suffered, or was much concerned for somebody 
that did.' Returning to Athens, he became one of the senators of the Areopagus ; 
he was converted by St. Paul, and by him appointed bishop of Athens. Having la- 
bored and suffered much for the holy cause, he became a martyr to the faith, being 
burnt to death at Athens, in the 93d year of Christ." (Cave's Lives of the Apostles. 
Stanhope on Epis. and Gos. Calmet's Dictionary, — quoted by Williams on Pearson.) 

From the grave manner in which this story is told, the reader would naturally sup- 
pose that these great writers had some authority for these incidents ; but in reality, 
everything that concerns Dionysius the Areopagite, is utterly unknown ; and not one 
of these impudent inventions can be traced back further than the sixth century. 

After this tolerably hopeful beginning of the gospel in Athens, 
Paul left that city, and went southwestward to Corinth, then the 
most splendid and flourishing city of all Greece, and the capital 
of the Roman province of Achaia. It was famous, beyond all the 
cities of the world, for its luxury and refinement, — and the name 
of " Corinthian" had, long before the time of Paul, gone forth as 
a proverbial expression for what was splendid in art, brilliant in 
invention, and elegant in vice. 

Here first arose that sumptuous order of architecture that still 
perpetuates the proverbial elegance of the splendid city of its birth ; 
and the gorgeously beautiful style of the rich Corinthian column, 
" waving its wanton wreath," — may be taken as an aptly expres- 
sive emblem of the general moral and internal, as well as external 
characteristics of this last home of true Grecian art. Here long- 
est tarried the taste, art, and refinement, which so eminently 
marked the first glories of Greece, and when the triumphs of that 
ancient excellence were beginning to grow dim in its brighter 



paul. 555 

early seats in Attica and in Ionian Asia, they flashed out with a 
most dazzling beauty in the splendid city of Isthmus, — but alas ! 
— in a splendor that was indeed only a passing flash, — a last bril- 
liant gleam from this glorious spot, before the lamp of Hellenic 
glory in art, went out for ever. In the day of the apostle's visit, 
however, it was in its most " high and palmy state," — the queen 
of the Grecian world. It was glorious, too, in the dearest recol- 
lections of the patriotic history of Greece ; for here was the centre 
of that last brilliant Achaian confederacy, which was cherished by 
the noble spirits of Aratus and Philopoemen ; and here, too, was 
made the last stand against the all-crushing advance of the legions 
of Rome ; and when it fell at last before that resistless conquering 
movement, — " great was the fall of it.' 7 The burning of Corinth 
by Mummius, (B. C. 144, the year of the fall of Carthage,) is in- 
famous above all the most barbarous acts of Roman conquest, for 
its melancholy destruction of the works of ancient art, with which 
it then abounded. But from the ashes of this mournful ruin, it 
rose soon after, under the splendid patronage of Roman dominion, 
to a new splendor, that equaled, or perhaps outwent the glories of 
its former perfection, which had been ripening from the day when, 
as recorded by old Homer, in the freshness of its early power, it 
sent forth its noble armaments to the siege of Troy, or set afloat 
the earliest warlike navy in the world, or was made, through a 
long course of centuries, the centre of the most brilliant of Gre- 
cian festivals, in the celebration of the Isthmian games before its 
walls. The Roman conquerors, as if anxious to make to this an- 
cient seat of Grecian splendor, a full atonement for the barbarous 
ruin with which they had overwhelmed it, now showered on it all 
the honors and favors in their power. It was rebuilt as a Roman 
colony, — endowed by the munificence of senates, consuls, empe- 
rors, and made the capital of the Roman province of Achaia, until 
the dismemberment of the empire. Shining in its gaudy fetters, 
it became what it has been described to be in the apostolic age, 
and was then, beyond all doubt, the greatest Grecian city in Eu- 
rope, if not in the world. Athens was then mouldering in more 
than incipient decay — "the ghost of its former self;" for even Ci- 
cero, long before this, describes it as presenting everywhere specta- 
cles of the most lamentable ruin and decline j but Corinth was in 
the highth of its glory, — its luxury, — its vice, — its heathen wick- 
edness, — and may therefore be justly esteemed the most important 
scene of labor into which apostolic enterprise had ever yet made 



556 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

its way, and to have been well worthy of the attention which it 
ever after received from Paul, to the very last of his life, being 
made the occasion and object of a larger and a more splendid por- 
tion of his epistolary labors, than all with which he ever favored 
any other place in the world. 

" Corinth. — There is scarcely any one of the seats of ancient magnificence and 
luxury, that calls up more vivid and powerful associations, than are awakened by 
the name of this once opulent and powerful city. Corinth, ' the prow and stern of 
Greece,' the emporium of its commerce, the key and bulwark of the Peloponnesus, 
was proverbial for its wealth as early as the time of Homer. Its situation was so 
advantageous for the inexperienced navigation of early times, that it became of ne- 
cessity the centre of trade. The first naval battle on record was fought between 
Corinth and its colony Corcyra, about 657 B. C. ' Syracuse, the ornament of Sicily, 
Corcyra, sometime sovran of the seas, Ambracia in Epirus, and several other cities 
more or less flourishing, owe their origin to Corinth.' (Trav. of Anacharsis, vol. III. 
c. 37.) Thucydides states, that the Corinthian ship-builders first produced galleys 
with three benches of oars. The circumnavigation of the peninsula was tedious 
and uncertain to a proverb; while at the Isthmus, not only their cargoes, but, if re- 
quisite, the smaller vessels, might be transported from sea to sea. By its port of Cen- 
chreae, it received the rich merchandise of Asia, and by that of Lechaeum, it main- 
tained intercourse with Italy and Sicily. The Isthmian Games, by the concourse of 
people which they attracted at their celebration, contributed not a little to its immense 
opulence ; and the prodigality of its merchants rendered the place so expensive, that 
it became a saying, ' It is not for every one to go to Corinth.' Even after its barba- 
rous destruction by the Romans, it must have been an extremely magnificent city. 
Pausanias mentions in and near the city, a theatre, an odeum, a stadium, and sixteen 
temples. That of Venus possessed above a thousand female slaves. ' The women 
of Corinth are distinguished by their beauty; the men by their love of gain and 
pleasure. They ruin their health by convivial debauches, and love with them is only 

licentious passion. Venus is their "principal deity The Corinthians, who 

performed such illustrious acts of valor in the Persian war, becoming enervated by 
pleasure, sunk under the yoke of the Argives; were obliged alternately to solicit the 
protection of the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians, and the Thebans; and are at length 
reduced to be only the wealthiest, the most effeminate, and the weakest state in Greece.' " 
Anacharsis. (Mod. Trav. pp. 160, 161.) 

The Hebrew stranger, entering without despondency this new 
scene of labor, passed on unnoticed, and looking about for those 
with whom he might be bold to communicate, on the .score of na- 
tional and religious sympathies, he found among those who like 
himself were strangers, a Jew, by name Aquilas, who with his 
wife Priscilla had lately arrived from Italy, whence they had just 
been driven by a vexatious decree of Claudius Caesar, which, on 
some groundless accusation, ordered all the Jews to depart from 
Rome. Aquilas, though lately a resident in Italy, was originally 
from Pontus in the northern part of Asia Minor, not very far from 
Paul's native province ; and this proximity of origin, joined to an- 
other circumstance arising out of it, drew the strangers together, 
in this foreign city. In Pontus, even at this day, is carried on that 
same famous manufacture of camlet articles for which Cilicia was 
also distinguished and proverbial, and it is therefore perfectly rea- 
sonable to suppose that in that age also, this business was common 



paul. 557 

in the same region, because the variety of goat which produces 
the material, has always been confined within those limits. Being 
of the same trade, then, and both of them friendless strangers, 
seeking employment and support, Paul and Aquilas fell into one 
another's company and acquaintance, and getting work at the same 
time, they seem to have set up a kind of partnership in their trade, 
living together, and working in the same way, from day to day. 
This, of course, gave constant opportunity for the freest commu- 
nication on all subjects of conversation ; and Aquilas would not 
be long in rinding out the great object, which had led Paul away 
from his country and friends, to a place where his necessities drove 
him to the laborious exercise of an occupation, which a person of 
his rank and character could not originally have acquired with 
any intention of gaining his livelihood thereby. That this was 
the sole motive of his present application to his tedious business, 
is abundantly testified in the epistles which he afterwards wrote 
to this same place ; for he expressly says, that he " was chargeable 
to no man," but " labored with his own hands." Yet the diligent 
pursuit of this laborious avocation did not prevent him from ap- 
pearing on the sabbath, in the synagogue, as a teacher of divine 
things ; nor would the noble principles of Jewish education per- 
mit any man to despise the stranger on account of his necessitous 
and apparently humble circumstances. His weekly ministry was 
therefore pursued without hindrance, and with success ; for " he 
persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Among those who received 
the most eminent advantage from his apostolic labors, was his 
fellow- workman Aquilas, who with his wife Priscilla here imbibed 
such a portion of Christian knowledge, as ever after made both 
him and her highly useful as teachers of the new faith, to which 
they were at this time converted. It would seem, however, that 
Paul did not, during the first part of his ministrations, very openly 
and energetically proclaim the grand doctrine of the faith ; for it 
was not till after the arrival of Silas and Timothy from Macedonia, 
that he " pressed on in the word, and testified to the Jews that 
Jesus was the Messiah." As had usually been the case, whenever 
he had proclaimed this solemn truth to his own countrymen, he 
was met by the Corinthian Jews, for the most part, with a most 
determined and scornful opposition ; so that renouncing their fel- 
lowship in the expressive gesture of an Oriental, — shaking his 
raiment, — he declared — " Your blood be on your own heads : — I 

am clean. Henceforth, I will go to the Gentiles," Leaving their 
73 



558 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

company, he then went into the house of a religious friend, close 
to the synagogue, and there took up • his abode. But not all the 
Jews were involved in the condemnation of this rejection. On the 
contrary, one of the most eminent men among them, Crispus, either 
then or formerly the ruling elder of the synagogue, professed the 
faith of Jesus, notwithstanding its unpopularity. Along with him 
his whole family were baptized, and many other Corinthians re- 
ceived the word in the same manner. In addition to these nobly 
encouraging results of his devoted labors, his ardor in the cause 
of Jesus received a new impulse from a remarkable dream, in 
which the Lord appeared to him, uttering these words of high 
consolation, — " Fear not, but speak, and hold not thy peace ; for 
I am with thee, and no one shall hurt thee. I have many people 
in this city." Under the combined influence of both natural and 
supernatural encouragements, he therefore remained zealously la- 
boring in Corinth, and made that city his residence, as Luke very 
particularly records, for a year and six months. 

"xviii. 5. awelxsTo ra Xdycj, &c. The common reading is irvsv/iaTi. Now since 
avvexeaQai, among other significations, denotes angi, maerore corripi, (see Luke xii. 50, 
and the note on Matt. iv. 24,) many commentators, as Hammond, Mill, and Wolf, 
explain, ' angebatur Paulus animo, dum docebat Judaeos, Jesum esse Messiam ;' viz. 
| since he could produce no effect among them.' And they compare ver 6. But this 
interpretation is at variance with the context. 

" Now this verb also signifies to incite, urge, as in 2 Cor. v. 14. Hence Beza, Pri- 
caeus, and others, explain : ' intus ed apud se aestuebat prae zeli ardore;' which in- 
terpretation I should admit, if there were not reason to suppose, from the authority of 
MSS. and Versions, that the true reading, (though the more difficult one,) is \6ya, of 
which the best interpretation, and that most suitable to the context, is the one found in 
the Vulg. ' instabat verbo.' For awz^aQai denotes also to be held, occupied by any thing ; 
as in Sap. 17, 20. Herodot. 1, 17, 22. Aelian, V. H. 14, 22. This signification of the 
word being admitted, the sense will be : ' When they had approached whom Paul 
(who knew that combined strength is most efficacious) had expected as his assistants 
in promulgating the Christian doctrine, and of whom, in so large and populous a city 
there was need, then he applied himself closely to the work of teaching.' Kuin. (Bloom- 
field's Annot. p. 593.) 

HIS EPISTLES WRITTEN FROM CORINTH. 

The period of his residence in this city is made highly interesting 
and important in the history of the sacred canon, by the circum- 
stance that here he wrote some of the first of those epistles to his va- 
rious missionary charges, which constitute the most controverted 
and the most doctrinal portion of the New Testament. In treating 
of these writings, in the course of the narrative of his life, the very 
contracted limits now left to his biographer, will make it necessary 
to be much more brief in his literary history, than in that of those 
other apostles, whose writings have claimed and received so full a 
statement, under their respective lives. Nor is there so much occa- 
sion for the labors of the apostolic historian on this part of the his- 



paul. 559 

tory of the apostolic works, as on those already so fully treated ; for 
while the history of the writings of Peter, John, Matthew, James, 
and Jude, has so seldom been presented to the eyes of common 
readers, the writings of Paul, which have always been the great 
storehouse of Protestant dogmatism, have been discussed and am- 
plified in their history, scope, character, and style, more fully than 
all the rest of the Bible, for common readers ; but in the great ma- 
jority of instances, proving such a comment on the sadly prophetical 
words of Peter on these very writings, that the apostolic historian 
may well and wisely dread to immerse himself in such a sea of dif- 
ficulties as presents itself to view ; and he therefore cautiously avoids 
any intermeddling with discussions which will possibly involve him 
in the condemnation pronounced by the great apostolic chief, on those 
" unlearned and unstable," who, even in his time, had begun to 
" wrest to their own destruction, the things hard to be understood in 
the epistles of his beloved brother Paul ;" a sentence which seems to 
have been wholly overlooked by the great herd of dogmatizing com- 
mentators, who, very often, without either the "learning" or the 
" stability," which Peter thought requisite for the safe interpretation 
of the Pauline epistles, have rushed on to the task of vulgarizing 
these noble and honest writings, to suit the base purposes of some 
popular system of mystical words and complex doctrines. If, then, 
the " unlearned and unstable" have been thus distinctly warned by 
the highest apostolic authority, against meddling with these obscure 
and peculiar writings ; and since the whole history of dogmatic the- 
ology is so full of melancholy comments on the undesignedly pro- 
phetical force of Peter's denunciation, — it is no more than prudent 
to decline the slightest interference with a subject, which has been 
on such authority declared to require the possession of so high a de- 
gree of learning and stability, for its safe and just treatment. The 
few things which may be safely stated, will merely concern the 
place, time, and immediate occasion of the writing of each of these 
epistles. 

In the first place, as to the order in which these works of Paul 
are arranged in the common New Testament canon, it should be ob- 
served that it has reference neither t® date, subject, nor any thing 
whatever, in their character or object, except the very arbitrary 
circumstance of the rank and importance of the places and persons 
that were the original objects of their composition. The epistle to 
the Romans is always placed first, because the imperial city to which 
it was directed was beyond all question the greatest in the world. 
The epistles to the Corinthians are next, because that city was the 
nearest in rank and importance to Rome, of all those which were the 
objects of Paul's epistolary attentions. The epistle to the Galatians 
is next, because it was directed to a great province, inferior indeed 
in importance to the two great cities before mentioned, but vastly 
above any of the other places to which Paul wrote. The epistle to 



560 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

the Ephesians comes next, because Ephesus ranked far above any of 
the cities which follow. Philippi was supposed, by those who ar- 
ranged the canon, greater than Colosse and Thessalonica, because it 
was thought to have been a capital city. Thus all those epistles 
which are addressed to whole churches, are placed first ; and those 
which are addressed to individuals, in the same manner, form a class 
by themselves ; that to Timothy being placed first of these, because 
he was the most eminent of all the apostle's assistants, — Titus being 
inferior to him in dignity, and Philemon, a person of no account at 
all, except from the bare circumstance, that he was accidentally the 
subject of Paul's notice. The epistle to the Hebrews is last of all, 
because it is altogether peculiar in its character, addressed neither to 
churches, nor to an individual, but to a whole nation, being published 
and circulated for their general benefit. The circumstance, also, 
that it was long denied a place in the canon, and considered as a 
spurious writing, improperly attributed to Paul, probably caused it 
to be put last of all his writings, when, in the course of time, it was 
at length allowed a place in the canon. 

This is the view which Michaelis gives of the arrangement of the Pauline epistles. 
(Introd. IV. 1.) 

FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 

That epistle which the great majority of all modern critics consider 
as the earliest of all those writings of Paul that are now preserved, 
is the first to the Thessalonians. It is directed to them from Paul, 
Silvanus, (or Silas,) and Timothy, which shows that it was written 
after Paul had been joined by these two brethren, which was not 
until some time after his arrival in Corinth. It appears by the se- 
cond and third chapters, that the apostle, having been hindered by 
some evil agency of the wicked, from visiting Thessalonica, as he 
had earnestly desired to do, had been obliged to content himself with 
sending Timothy to the brethren there, to comfort them in their 
faith, and to inquire whether they yet stood fast in their first honor- 
able profession ; for he declares himself to have been anxious to 
know whether by some means the tempter might not have tempted 
them, and his labor have thus been in vain. But he now informs 
them how he has lately been greatly comforted by the good news 
brought from them by Timothy, who had assured the apostle of 
their faith and love, and that they had great remembrance of him 
always, desiring much to see him, as he them. Making known to 
them the great joy which these tidings had caused in him, he now 
affectionately re-assures them of his high and constant regard for 
them, and of his continued remembrance of them in his prayers. 
He then proceeds briefly to exhort them to a perseverance in the 
Christian course, in which they had made so fair an outset, urging 
upon them more especially, those virtues which were peculiarly rare 
among those with whom they were daily brought in contact, — purity 



PAUL. 561 

of life, rigid honesty in business transactions, a charitable regard for 
the feelings of others, a quiet, peaceable, inoffensive deportment, and 
other minuter counsels, according to the peculiar circumstances of 
different persons among them. The greater portion of this brief 
letter, indeed, is taken up with these plain, practical matters, with no 
reference to any deep doctrinal subjects, the whole being thus evi- 
dently well suited to the condition of believers who had just begun 
the Christian course, and had been in no way prepared to appreciate 
any learned discussion of those obscure points which in later periods 
were the subject of so much controversy among some of Paul's con- 
verts. Their dangers hitherto had also been mainly in the moral 
rather than in the doctrinal way, and the only error of mere belief, 
to which he makes reference, is one which has always been the oc- 
casion of a great deal of harmless folly among the ignorant and the 
weak-minded in the Christian churches, from the apostolic age to 
this day. The evil, however, was considered by the apostle of so 
much importance, that he thought it worth while to briefly expose 
its folly to the Thessalonians, and he accordingly discourses to them 
of the day of judgment, assuring them that those who might happen 
to be alive at the moment of Christ's coming, would derive no pecu- 
liar advantage from that circumstance, because those who had died 
in Christ should rise first, and the survivors be then caught up to 
meet the Lord in the air. But as for " the times and the seasons," 
— those endless themes for the discursive nonsense of the visionary, 
even to the present day and hour, — he assures them that there was 
no need at all that he should write to them, because they already 
well knew that the day of the Lord should come as a thief in the 
night, according to the words of Jesus himself. The only practical 
benefit which they could expect to derive, then, from this part of their 
faith, was the conviction of the necessity of constantly bearing in 
mind the shortness and uncertainty of their earthly stay, and the 
importance of watchfulness and sobriety. After several sententious 
moral exhortations, he concludes with affectionate salutations, and 
with an earnest, solemn charge, that the letter should be read to all 
the brethren of the church. 

It will be observed, that at the conclusion of the epistle is a statement that it was 
written from Athens,, — an assertion perfectly absurd, and rendered evidently so by 
the statements contained in the epistle itself, as above shown. All the similar state- 
ments appended to his other epistles are equally unauthorized, and most of them 
equally false; — being written by some exceedingly foolish copyists, who were too 
stupid to understand the words which they transcribed. Yet these idle falsehoods are 
gravely given in all copies of the English translation, and are thus continually sent 
abroad to mislead common readers, many cf whom, seeing them thus attached to the 
apostolic writings, suppose them to be also of inspired authority, and are deceived 
accordingly. And they probably will continue to be thus copied, in spite of their 
palpable and mischievous falsehood, until such a revolution in the moral sense of 
common people takes place, that they shall esteem a new negative truth more valua- 
ble and interesting, than an old, groundless blunder. 

This view of the design of the epistle is not adopted from any commentator in 
particular, but is taken from the manifest and undisputed bearing of the whole 
writing. There is hardly a passage in the epistle that has ever been made a subject 



562 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

of controversy. It is simple, brief, entirely local in its bearings and application, and 
not at all obscured by references to doctrinal systems, which abound in the later 
writings of Paul. In short, it is just such an epistle as would be expected from the 
apostle, before the multiplication of doctrinal difficulties in the churches made it ne- 
cessary to load his correspondence with counter-statements and arguments. 

ACCUSATION EEFORE THE PROCONSUL. 

For some time after the writing- of the first epistle to the Thes- 
salonians, with these triumphs and other encouragements, Paul 
and his faithful helpers appear to have gone on steadily in their 
apostolic labors, with no special obstacle or difficulty, that is com- 
memorated in the sacred record. But at last their old difficulties 
began to manifest themselves in the gradually awakened enmity of 
the Jews, who, though at his first distinct public ministrations they 
had expressed a decided and scornful opposition to the doctrine of 
a crucified Savior, yet suffered the new teachers to go on, without 
opposing them any farther than by scornful verbal hostility, blas- 
phemy, and abuse. But when they saw the despised heresy 
making such rapid advances, notwithstanding the contempt with 
which it was visited, they immediately determined to let it no 
longer take advantage of their inefficiency in resisting its progress. 
Of course, deprived themselves of all political power, they had 
not the means of meeting the evil by physical violence, and they 
well knew that any attempt on their part to raise an illegal com- 
motion against the strangers, would only bring down on the ex-' 
citers of the disturbance, the whole vengeance of their Roman 
rulers, who were unsparing in their vengeance on those that un- 
dertook to defy the forms of their laws, for the sake of persecution, 
or any private ends ; and least of all would a class of people so 
peculiar and so disliked as the Jews, be allowed to take any such 
treasonable steps without insuring them a most dreadful punish- 
ment. These circumstances therefore compelled them to proceed, 
as usual, under the forms of law ; and their first step against Paul, 
therefore, was to apprehend him, and take him, as a violator of 
religious order, before the highest Roman tribunal, — that of the 
proconsul. 

The proconsul of Achaia, holding his supreme seat of justice 
in Corinth, the capital of that Roman province, was Lucius Ju- 
nius Gallio, a man well known to the readers of one of the clas- 
sic Latin writers of that age, (Seneca,) as one of the most remark- 
able exemplifications of those noble virtues which were the great 
theme of this philosopher's pen. Out of many beautiful illustra- 
tions which may be drawn from Roman and Jewish writers, to 



paul. 563 

explain and amplify the honest and faithful apostolic history of 
Luke, there is none more striking and gratifying than the aid here 
drawn from this fine philosophical classic, on the character of the 
noble proconsul, who by his upright, wise, -and clement decision, 
against the mean persecutors of Paul, — and by his indignant re- 
fusal to pervert and degrade his vice-regal power to the base ends 
of private abuse, has acquired the grateful regard and admiring 
respect of all Christian readers of apostolic history. The name 
of Lucius Junius Gallio, by which he is known to Roman writers 
as well as in apostolic history, was not his original family designa- 
tion, and therefore gives the reader no idea of his interesting rela- 
tionship to one of the finest moralists of the whole period of the 
Roman empire. His original family name was Marcus Annaeus 
Novatus Seneca, — which appellation he exchanged for his later 
one, on being adopted by Lucius Junius Gallio, a noble Roman, 
who being destitute of children, adopted, according to a very com- 
mon custom of the imperial city, one of a family that had already 
given promise of a fine reward to those who should take its off- 
spring as theirs. The famous philosopher before mentioned, — 
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, — was his own brother ; both of them 
being the sons of Marcus Annaeus Seneca, a distinguished orator 
and rhetorician of the Augustan age. A strong and truly frater- 
nal affection always continued to hold the two brothers together, 
even after they had been separated in name by the adoption of the 
older into the family of Gallio ; and the philosopher often com- 
memorates his noble brother in terms of high respect ; and dedi- 
cated to him one of the most perfect of those moral treatises which 
have immortalized the name of Seneca. 

The philosopher Seneca, after having been for many years ba- 
nished from Rome by Claudius, was at length recalled by that em- 
peror in the ninth year of his reign, corresponding to A. D. 49. 
He was immediately made a senator, and was still further honored 
by being intrusted with the education of Domitius, the son of 
Agrippina, afterwards adopted by Claudius as heir to the throne, 
to which he succeeded on the emperor's death, under the name of 
Nero, by which he has now become so infamous wherever the 
Roman name is known. Being thus elevated to authority and 
great influence with the emperor, Seneca made use of his power 
to procure for his brother Gallio such official honors as his talents 
and character justly claimed. In the eleventh year of Claudius 
he was made consul, as is recorded in the Fasti Consulares ; and 



564 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

was soon after sent into Greece, as proconsul of Achaia. Arriving 
at Corinth in the year 53, he was immediately addressed by the 
Jewish citizens of that place in behalf of their plot against Paul ; 
for they naturally supposed that this would be the best time for 
the attempt to bend the new governor to their purposes, when he 
was just commencing his administration, and would be anxious to 
please the subjects of his power by his opening acts. But Gallio 
had no disposition to acquire popularity with any class of citizens 
by any such abuse of power, and by his conduct on this occasion 
very fairly justifies the high character given him by his brother 
Seneca. When the Jews came dragging Paul before the procon- 
sular tribunal, with the accusation — " This fellow persuades men 
to worship God in a manner contrary to the ritual," — before Paul 
could open his mouth in reply, Gallio carelessly answered — " If it 
were a matter of crime or misdemeanor, ye Jews ! it would be 
reasonable that I should bear with you ; but if it be a question of 
words and names; and of your ritual, look ye to it ; for I do not 
wish to be a judge of those things." With this contemptuous re- 
ply, he cleared the court of them. The Jews thus found their 
scheme of abusing Paul under the sanction of the Roman tribunal, 
perfectly frustrated ; nor was their calamity coufined to this disap- 
pointment ; for all the Greeks who were present at the trial, — in- 
dignant at the scandalous character of the proceeding, — took Sos- 
thenes, the ruling elder of the synagogue, who had probably been 
most active in the persecution of Paul, as he was the regular legal 
chief of the Jews, and gave him a beating in the court, before he 
could obey the orders of the proconsul, and move off from the 
tribunal. Gallio was so far from being displeased at this very ir- 
regular and improper outbreak of public feeling, that he took no 
notice of the action whatever, though it seems like a violation of 
the dignity of his tribunal ; and it may therefore be reasonably 
concluded that he was very much provoked against the Jews, and 
was disposed to sympathize with Paul ; otherwise he would have 
been apt to have punished the outrage of the Greeks upon Sos- 
thenes. 

" The name of this proconsul was Marcus Annaeus Novatus, but being adopted by- 
Lucius Junius Gallio, he took the name of his adopted father ; he was brother to the 
famous Seneca, tutor to Nero. That philosopher dedicated to Gallio his book, ' De 
Vita Beata.' The Roman historians concur in giving him the character of a sweet 
disposition, an enemy to all vice, and particularly a hater of flattery. He was twice 
made proconsul of Achaia, first by Claudius, and afterwards by Nero. As he was 
the sharer of his brother's prosperity, so he was of his misfortunes, when he fell under 
Nero's displeasure, and was at length put to death by the tyrant, as well as his brother." 
(Calmet's Comment. Poole's Annot. Williams on Pearson.) 



paul. 565 

" In Acts xviii. 12—16, we find Paul is brought before Gallio by the Jews, but this 
proconsul refused to judge any such matters, as not coming within his jurisdiction. 
The character for justice, impartiality, prudence, and mildness of disposition, which 
this passage gives to Gallio, is confirmed by Seneca, his brother, in these words : — 
Solebam tibi dicere, Gallionem fratrem meum (quern nemo non parum amat, etiam, 
qui amare plus non potest) alia vitia non nosse, hoc etiam, (i. e. aduiationem,) odisse. 
Nemo enim mortalium uni tarn dulcis est, quam hie omnibus. Hoc quoque loco 
blanditiis tuis restitit, ut exclamares invenisse te inexpugnabiiem virum adversus in- 
sidias, quas nemo non in sinum recipit. (L. Ann. Seneca, Natural. Gtuaest. lib. iv. 
in praef. op. torn. iv. p. 267, edit. Bipont.) In our translation Gallio is styled the 
deputy, but the real Greek word is AvdvirarEvovros, proconsul. The accuracy of Luke 
in this instance is very remarkable. In the partition of the provinces of the Roman 
empire, Macedonia and Achaia were assigned to the people and Senate of Rome. 
In the reign of Tiberius they were, at their own request, made over to the emperor. 
In the reign of Claudius, (A. U. C. 797, A. D. 44,) they were again restored to the 
Senate, after which time proconsuls were sent into this country. Nero afterwards 
made the Achaians a free people. The Senate therefore lost this province again. 
However, that they might not be sufferers, the emperor gave them the island of Sar- 
dinia, in the room of it. Vespasian made Achaia a province again. There is like- 
wise a peculiar propriety in the name of the province of which Gallio was proconsul. 
The country subject to him was ail Greece ; but the proper name of the province 
among the Romans was Achaia, as appears from various passages of the Roman his- 
torians, and especially from the testimony of Pausanias." (Pausanias Descript. lib. 
vii. p. 563. Lardner's Works, 4to. vol. I. p. 19. Williams.) 

" The words TaWioivos <fc dvOvnarevovros ought to be rendered, with Heumann, 
Walch, Antiqq. Corinth, p. 35, and Reichard, (as indeed is required by the context,) 
' when Gallio had been made proconsul,' or ' on Gallio's entering on the proconsul- 
ship.' (Kuin.) In the same sense it. was also taken by Beza and Piscator ; and this 
appears to be the true one. The Jews, it seems, waited for the arrival of a new pro- 
consul to make their request, as thinking that they should then be less likely to meet 
with a refusal." (Bloomfield's Annot. vol. IV. p. 600.) 

" ' Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue,' V. 17. In the 
8th verse we read that Crispus was the chief ruler of the synagogue in Corinth. And 
from this we may suppose that there were more than one synagogue in that city, or 
that there might be more than one ruler in the same synagogue ; or that Crispus, 
after his conversion to Christianity, might have been succeeded by Sosthenes ; but 
then we are at a loss to know who the people are that thus beat and misused him ; 
the Greek printed copies tell us that they were the Gentiles; and those that read the 
text imagine, that when they perceived the neglect and disregard wherewith the pro- 
consul received the Jews, they, to insult them more, fell upon the ruler of their syna- 
gogue, whether out of hatred to them, or friendship to St. Paul, it makes no matter. 
But others think, that Sosthenes, however head of the synagogue, was nevertheless 
the friend of St. Paul, and that the other Jews, seeing themselves slighted by Gallio, 
might vent their malice upon him ; for they suppose that this was the same Sosthenes, 
whose name St. Paul, in the beginning of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, written 
about three years after this time, joins with his own. This opinion, however, was 
not universally received, since, in the time of Eusebius, it was thought the Sosthenes 
mentioned in the epistle was one of the seventy disciples, and, consequently, could not 
be the chief of the synagogue at Corinth, twenty years after the death of Jesus Christ." 
(Beausobre's Annot. Calmet's Comment, and Diet. Williams.) 

" xviii. 17. imXa/Soixepot 61 navres oi "EWrjves. There is here some variation of read- 
ing, and no little question raised as to the true one ; which consequently leaves the 
interpretation unsettled. Two.ancient MSS. and versions omit oi "EAA/^s, (the Greeks,) 
and others read oi 'lovSaioi, (the Jews.) As to the latter reading, it cannot be tolerated ; 
for why should the Jews have beaten him 1 Neither is it likely that they would have 
taken such a liberty before so solemn a tribunal. The words oi "EAAVjvej are thought 
by many critics, as Grotius, Mill, Pierce, Bengel, and Kuinoel, to be derived from 
the margin, like the last. Now those were Gentiles (say they) who beat Sosthenes ; 
and hence some one wrote oi "EXA^e?. As to the reason for the beating, it was to 
make the Jews go away the faster ; and to this they were actuated partly by their 
hatred towards the Jews, and partly by a desire to please the procurator. But this 
appears to be pressing too much on the word dmiXao-sv, which has by no means any 
such meaning. Besides, it is strange that the word "EWrjveg should have crept into 
nearly all the MSS. ; even into so many early ones. And, supposing "EAA^ej to be 
74 



566 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

removed, what sense is to be'given to rravres 1 None (I think) satisfactory, or agreea- 
able to the style of the New Testament. It must therefore be retained ; and then 
the sense of ndpres will be as follows : ' all the Greeks, both Gentiles and Christians :' 
which is so evident, that I am surprised the commentators should not have seen it. 
Some explain it of the Gentiles, and others of the Gentile Christians. Both indeed 
had reason to take umbrage at the intolerance and bitter animosity of the Jews. It 
is not likely that any should have joined in the beating merely to please the procon- 
sul, who was not a man to be gratified by such a procedure. So that the gnomes 
brought forward by Grotius on the base assentatio of courtiers, are not here ap- 
plicable. 

" By etvtttop is merely to be understood beating, or thumping him with their fists, as 
he passed along. Any thing more than that, we cannot suppose they would have ven- 
tured upon, or the proconsul have tolerated. 

"By rovrwv, (these things,) ver. 17, we may, I think, understand both the accusation 
brought forward, and the cuffs which followed; to neither of which the proconsul 
paid much attention; and this from disgust at the litigious conduct of the Jews; as 
also from the custom, mentioned by Pricaeus, of the Roman governors, to pass by 
any conduct which did not directly tend to degrade the dignity of the Roman name, 
or weaken its influence, in order that the yoke might be as easy as possible to the pro- 
vincials." (Bloomfield's Annot. vol. IV. pp. 603—605.) 

SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 

His character having been thus vindicated, and his safety thus as- 
sured him by the supreme civil authority, Paul resided for a long 
time in Corinth, steadily pursuing his apostolic work, without any 
direct hindrance or molestation from the Jews. There is no reason 
to suppose that he confined all his labor entirely to the city ; on the 
contrary, it is quite certain, that the numerous smaller gospel fields 
throughout the adjacent country, must have attracted his attention, 
and it appears, from the commencement of his second epistle to the 
Corinthians, that many throughout all Achaia had received the gos- 
pel, and had been numbered among the saints. Corinth, however, 
remained the great centre of his operations in Greece, and from this 
place he soon after directed another epistle to one of his apostolic 
charges in Macedonia, — the church of Thessalonica. Since his 
former epistle had been received by them, there had arisen a new 
occasion for his anxious attention to their spiritual condition, and in 
his second letter he alludes distinctly to the fact that there had been 
misrepresentations of his opinion, and seems to imply that a letter 
had been forged in his name, and presented to them, as containing a 
new and more complete account of the exact time of the expected 
coming of Christ, to which he had only vaguely alluded in the first. 
In the second chapter of his second epistle, he renews his warning 
against these delusions about the coming of Christ, alluding to the 
fact, that they had been deceived and disturbed by mis-statements on 
this subject, and had been led into error, both by those who pretended 
to be inspired, and by those who attempted to show by prediction, 
that the coming of Christ was at hand, and also by the forged epis- 
tle pretending to contain Paul's own more decisive opinions on the 
subject. He exhorts them to " let no man deceive them by any of 
these means." He warns them, moreover, against any that exalt 
themselves against the doctrines which he had taught them, and de 



paul. 567 

nounces all false and presumptuous teachers in very strong language. 
After various warnings against these and all disorderly persons 
among them, he refers to his own behavior while with them, as an 
example for them to follow, and reminds them how blamelessly and 
honestly he behaved himself. He did not presume on his apostolic 
office, to be an idler, or to eat any man's bread for naught, but stead- 
ily worked with his own hands, lest he should be chargeable to any 
one of them ; and this he did, not because his apostolic office did not 
empower him to live without manual labor, and to depend on those 
to. whom he preached for his means of subsistence, but because he 
wished to make himself, and his fellow-laborers, Silas and Timothy, 
examples for their behavior after he was gone. Yet it seemed that, 
notwithstanding the pains he had taken to inculcate an honest and 
industrious course, several persons among them had assumed the 
office of teaching and reproving, and had considered themselves 
thereby excused from doing any thing for their own support. In the 
conclusion, he refers them distinctly to his own signature and saluta- 
tion, which authenticate every epistle which he writes, and without 
which, no letter was to be esteemed genuine. This he specifies, no 
doubt, for the sake of putting them on their guard against the repe- 
tition of any such deception as had been lately practised on them in 
his name. 

HIS VOYAGE BACK TO THE EAST. 

Soon after Paul had written his second epistle to the Thessa- 
lonians, he left Corinth, in the spring of A. D. 56, as it is com- 
monly calculated, and after bidding the brethren farewell, journeyed 
back to Asia, from whose shores he had now been absent not less 
than three years. On his return journey, he was accompanied by 
his two acquaintances and fellow-laborers, Aquilas and Priscilla, 
who were now his most intimate friends, and henceforth were 
always esteemed among the important aids of the apostolic enter- 
prise. Journeying eastward across the isthmus, they came to 
Cenchreae, the eastern port of Corinth, and at the head of the 
great Seronic gulf, about seven miles from the city itself. At this 
place Paul discharged himself of the obligationof a vow which he 
had made some time before, in conformity with a common Jewish 
custom of thus giving force to their own sense of gratitude for 
the accomplishment of any desired object. He had vowed to let 
his hair grow until some unknown end was attained, and now, 
having seen the prayers which sanctioned that vow granted, he 
cut off his hair in token of the joyful completion of the enterprise 
on which he had thus solemnly and formally invoked the blessing 
of heaven. The actual purpose of this vow is not recorded,— but 



568 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

when the occasion on which he thus exonerated himself is con- 
sidered, it seems most reasonable to suppose that now, embarking 
from the shores of Europe, after he had there passed so many 
years of very peculiar labor and trials, he was thus celebrating 
the prosperous and happy achievment of his first great western 
mission, and that this vow had been made for his safe return, 
when he first sailed from the eastern coast of the Aegean, at Alex- 
andria Troas. 

FIRST RESIDENCE IN EPHESUS. 

He. sailed from Cenchreae to Ephesus, a great city of Ionic 
Asia, which had never been the scene of his apostolic labors, 
though he had traversed much of the country around it ; for it 
will be remembered, that on his last journey through Asia Minor, 
when he had passed over Galatia and Phrygia, he was about to 
enter Asia Proper, but was hindered by a special impulse of the 
Spirit, which sent him in a different direction. But having thus 
achieved his great western enterprise, there was now no longer 
any more important commission to prevent him from gratifying 
his eyes with a sight of this very interesting region, and making 
here an experimental effort to diffuse the knowledge of the gospel 
through the numerous, wealthy, refined, and populous cities of 
this, the most flourishing and civilized country in the world. He 
did not intend, however, to make any thing more than a mere call 
at Ephesus ; for the great object of his voyage from Europe was 
to return to Jerusalem and Syria, and give to his brethren a full 
statement of all the interesting particulars of his long and remark- 
able mission in Macedonia and Greece. But he took occasion to 
vary this eastern route, so as to effect as much good as possible by 
the way; and therefore embarked first for Ephesus, where he 
landed with'Aquilas and Priscilla, whom he left there, while he 
continued on his journey, southeastward. He stopped with them, 
however, a few days, with a view to open this new field of labor 
with them ; and going into the synagogue, discoursed with the 
Jews. He was so well received by his hearers, that he was ear- 
nestly besought to prolong his stay among them ; but he excused 
himself for his refusal of their kind invitation, by stating the great 
object which he had in view in leaving Europe at that particular 
time : — " I must by all means keep this coming feast at Jerusalem ; 
but I will return to you,— God willing^ 5 



paul. 569 

visit to jerusalem and syria. 
Bidding the Ephesians farewell, he sailed away from Ephesus 
to Caesarea, on the coast of Palestine, where he landed. Thence 
he went up to" Jerusalem, to salute the church. In this part of the 
history of Paul, Luke seems to be exceedingly brief; perhaps be- 
cause he was not then with him, and had never received from him 
any account of this journey. There is therefore no way of ascer- 
taining what was the particular motive or design of this visit. It 
would appear, however, from the very hurried manner in which 
the visit was noticed, that it was exceedingly brief, and his depart- 
ure thence may, as Calvin conjectures, have been hastened by the 
circumstance, that possibly the business on which he went thither 
did not succeed according to his wishes. At any rate, there seems 
to have been something very mysterious about the whole matter, 
else there would not have been this very studied concealment of 
the motives and details of a journey which he announced to the 
brethren of the church at Ephesus as absolutely necessary for 
him to perform. This also may have been concealed for the same 
reason which has been conjectured to have caused the visit to 
be so short, as would seem from the manner in which it is noticed. 
From Jerusalem he went down to Antioch, by what route is not 
specified, — but probably by way of Caesarea and the sea. 

"xviii. 22. Caesarea. A town on the sea-coast. [See the note on p. 192.] 'Ava/3as, 
'and having gone up.' Whither? Some commentators, as Camerar., De Dieu, 
Wolf, Calov., Heumann, Doddridge, Thaleman, Beck, andKuinoel, refer it to Caesa- 
rea. But this requires the confirmation of examples. And we must take for granted, 
that the city was built high above the port, (which is not likely,) or that the church 
was so situated; which would be extremely frigid. Neither is it certain that there 
was a church. Besides, how can the expression KaTa(laivu> be proper, as used of tra- 
veling from a sea-port town, like Caesarea, to Antioch'? I therefore prefer the mode 
of interpretation adopted by some ancient and many modern commentators, as Beza, 
Grotius, Mor., Rosenmuller, Reichard, Schott, Heinrichs, and others, who supply 
tis 'lepoaoXv/xa. This may indeed seem somewhat harsh ; yet it must be remembered, 
that not a few things are so in the New Testament ; and dvaffaivoi is there often used 
absolutely of going up to Jerusalem, and x-ara/?afi/w of going from thence. Nor is 
this unexampled in the classical writers. Xenophon uses the word in the very same 
sense, of those going from Greece to the capital of Persia. See Anab. 1, 1, 2. Hist. 
2, 1. 9, 10. An. 1, 4, 12. Hist. 4, 1, 2. 1, 5, 1. 1, 4, 2, and many other passages re- 
ferred to by Sturz in his Lex. Xenoph. in voce. Besides, as the words «'? 'hpogoXv/xa 
have just preceded, it is not very harsh to repeat them. Kuinoel, indeed, and some 
others, treat those words as not genuine; but their opinion rests on mere suspicion, 
unsupported by any proof." (Bloom. Annot. Vol. IV. p. 607.) 

JOURNEY IN ASIA AND RESIDENCE IN EPHESUS. 

From the very brief and general manner in which the incidents 
of this visit of Paul to the eastern continent are commemorated, 
the apostolic historian is left to gather nothing but the most naked 



570 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

circumstances of the route pursued ; and from the results, it is but 
fair to conclude that nothing of consequence happened to the 
apostle, as his duties consisted merely in a review and completion 
of the work he had gone over before. Luke evidently did not 
accompany Paul in this Asian journey, and he therefore only states 
the general direction of the apostle's course, without a single par- 
ticular. He says that Paul, after making some stay in Antioch, — 
where, no doubt, he greatly comforted the hearts of the brethren, 
by the glad tidings of the triumphs of Christ in Europe, — went 
in regular order over the regions of Galatia and Phrygia, every- 
where confirming the disciples. Beyond this, no incident what- 
ever is preserved ; yet here great amplification of the sacred record 
might be made, from the amusing narrative of that venerable 
monkish story-teller, who assumes the name of Abdias Babylonius, 
But from the specimens of his narrative already given, in the lives 
of Andrew and John, the reader will easily apprehend that they 
contain nothing which deserves to be intruded into the midst of 
the honest, authentic statements, of the original and genuine apos- 
tolic history ; and all these, with many other similar inventions, 
are wholly dismissed from the life of Paul, of whose actions such 
ample records have been left in the writings of himself and his 
companions, that it is altogether more necessary for the biographer 
to condense into a modernized form, with proper illustrations, the 
materials presented on the authority of inspiration, than to prolong 
the narrative with tedious inventions. 

SECOND RESIDENCE IN EPHESUS. 

In this part of the apostolic history, all that Luke records is, 
that Paul, after the before-mentioned survey of the inland coun- 
tries of Asia Minor, came down to the western shore, and visited 
Ephesus, according to the promise which he had made them at 
his farewell, a few months before. Since that hasty visit made in 
passing, some events important to the gospel cause had happened 
among them. An Alexandrine Jew named Apollos, a man of 
great Biblical learning, (as many of the Jews of his native city 
were,) and indued also with eloquence, — came to Ephesus, and 
there soon distinguished himself as a religious teacher. Of the 
doctrines of Jesus Christ and his apostles, indeed, he had never 
heard ; but he had somewhere been made acquainted with the pe- 
culiar reforming principles of his great forerunner, John the Bap- 
tist, and had been baptized, probably by some one of his disciples. 



PAUL. 571 

With great fervor and power, he discoursed learnedly of the things 
of the Lord, in the synagogue at Ephesus, and, of course, was 
brought under the notice of Aquilas and Priscilla, whom Paul had 
left to occupy that important field, while he was making his south- 
eastern tour. They took pains to draw Apollos into their acquaint- 
ance, and found him, like every truly learned man, very ready to 
learn, even from those who were his inferiors in most depart- 
ments of sacred knowledge. From them he heard with great in- 
terest and satisfaction, the peculiar and striking truths revealed in 
Jesus, and at once professing his faith in this new revelation, went 
forth again among the Jews, replenished with a higher learning 
and a diviner spirit. After teaching for some time in Ephesus, he 
was disposed to try his new powers in some other field ; and pro- 
posing to journey into Achaia, his two Christian friends gave him 
letters of introduction and recommendation to the brethren of the 
church in Corinth. While he was there laboring with great effi- 
ciency in the gospel cause, Paul, returning from his great apostolic 
survey of the inland and upper regions of Asia Minor, came to 
Ephesus. Entering on this work of perfecting and uniting the 
results of the various irregular efforts made by the different per- 
sons who had before labored there, he found, among those who 
professed to hold the doctrines of a new revelation, about a dozen 
men, who knew very little of the great doctrines which Paul had 
been in the habit of preaching. One of his first questions to them, 
of course, was whether they had yet received that usual con- 
vincing sign of the Christian faith, — the Holy Spirit. To which 
they answered in some surprise, that they had not yet heard that 
there was any Holy Spirit ; — thus evidently showing that they 
knew nothing about any such sign or its effects. Paul, in his turn 
considerably surprised at this remarkable ignorance of a matter of 
such high importance, was naturally led to ask what kind of in- 
itiation they had received into the new dispensation ; and learning 
from them, that they had only been baptized according to the bap- 
tism of John, — instantly assured them of the incompleteness of 
that revelation of the truth. " John truly baptized with the bap- 
tism of repentance, telling the people that they must believe on 
him that should come after him, — that is, on Christ Jesus." Hear- 
ing this, they consented to receive from the apostle of Jesus the 
renewal of the sign of faith, which they had formerly known as 
the token of that partial revelation made by John ; and they were 
therefore baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, — a form of 



572 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

words which of course had never been pronounced over them be- 
fore. Paul, then laying his hands on them, invoked the influence 
of the Holy Spirit, which was then immediately manifested, by the 
usual miraculous gifts which accompanied its effusion. 

" xviii. 24. Apollos. A name contracted from Apollonius, (which is read in the 
Cod. Cant.) as Epaphras from Epaphroditus, and Artemus from Artemonius. Of 
this Apollonius, mention is also made in 1 Cor. i. 12, iii. 5 seq. where Paul speaks of 
the labor he underwent in the instruction of the Corinthians. (1 Cor. iv. 6, xvi. 12.) 
Vivsi, by birth, i. e. country; as in xviii. 2. The Jews of Alexandria were eminent for 
Biblical knowledge. That most celebrated city of Egypt abounded with men of 
learning, both Jews and Gentiles." Kuin. (Bloomfield's Annot. Vol IV. p. 608.) 

" The Baptism, of John is put, by synecdoche, for the whole of John's ordinances. 
See the note on Matt. xxi. 25. (Kuin.) It is generally supposed that he had been 
baptized by John himself: but this must have been twenty years before; and it is not 
probable that during that time, he should have acquired no knowledge of Christianity. 
It should rather seem that he had been baptized by one of John's disciples; and per- 
haps not very long before the time here spoken of." (Bloomfield's Annot. Vol. IV. 
p. 610.) 

" With respect to the letters here mentioned, they were written for the purpose of 
encouraging Apollos, and recommending him to the brethren. This ancient eccle- 
siastical custom of writing letters of recommendation, (which seems to have origi- 
nated in the necessary caution to be observed in times of persecution, and arose out 
of the interrupted and tardy intercourse which, owing to their great distance from 
each other, subsisted between the Christians,) has been well illustrated by a tract of 
Ferrarius de Epistolis Ecclesiasticis, referred to by "Wolf." (Bloomfield, Vol. IV. 
p. 611.) 

" Ephesus was the metropolis of proconsular Asia. It was situated at the mouth of 
the river Cayster, on the shore of the Aegean sea, in that part anciently called Ionia, 
(but now Natolir,) and was particularly celebrated for the temple of Diana, which 
had been erected at the common expense of the inhabitants of Asia Proper, and was 
reputed one of the seven wonders of the world. In the time of Paul, this city 
abounded with orators and philosophers; and its inhabitants, in their gentile state, 
were celebrated for their idolatry and skill in magic, as well as for their luxury and 
lasciviousness. Ephesus is now under the dominion of the Turks, and is in a state 
of almost total ruin, being reduced to fifteen poor cottages, (not erected exactly on its 
original site,) and its once flourishing church is now diminished to three illiterate 
Greeks. (Rev. ii. 6.) In the time of the Romans, Ephesus was the metropolis of 
Asia. The temple of Diana is said to have been four hundred and twenty-five feet 
long, two hundred and twenty broad, and to have been supported by one hundred and 
twenty-seven pillars of marble, seventy feet high, whereof twenty-seven were most 
beautifully wrought, and all the rest polished. One Ctesiphon, a famous architect, 
planned it, and with so much art and curiosity, that it took two hundred years to 
finish it. It was set on hre seven times ; once on the very same day that Socrates was 
poisoned, four hundred years before Christ." (Home's Introd. Whitby's Table. 
Well's Geog. Williams on Pearson.) 

After this successful effort to confirm and complete the conver- 
sions already effected, Paul went* about his apostolic labors in the 
usual way, — going into the synagogue, and speaking boldly, dis- 
puting the antiquated sophistry of the Jews, and urging upon all, 
the doctrines of the new revelation. In this department of labor, 
he continued for the space of three months ; but at the end of that 
time, he found that many obstacles were thrown in the way of the 
truth by the stubborn adherents of the established forms of old 
Judaism, who would not allow that the lowly Jesus was the Mes- 
siah for whom their nation had so long looked as the restorer of 



paul 573 

Israel. Leaving the hardened and obstinate Jews, he therefore, 
according to his old custom in such cases of the rejection of the 
gospel by them, withdrew from their society, and thenceforth went 
with those who had believed among the more candid Greeks, who, 
with a truly enlightened and philosophical spirit, held their minds 
open to the reception of new truths, even though they might not 
happen to accord with those which were sanctioned to them by 
the prejudices of education. After leaving the synagogue, his new 
place of preaching and religious instruction was the school or lec- 
ture-room of one Tyrannus, — doubtless one of those philosophical 
institutions with which every Grecian city abounded. This con- 
tinued his field of exertion for two years, during which his fame 
became very widely established, — all the inhabitants of Ionic and 
Aeolic Asia having heard of the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews 
and Greeks. Among the causes and effects of this general noto- 
riety, was the circumstance, that many miraculous cures were 
wrought by the hands of Paul ; and many began even to attach a 
divine regard to his person ; handkerchiefs being brought to the 
sick from his body, which, on application to those afflicted, either 
with bodily or mental diseases, produced a perfect cure. This 
matter becoming generally known and talked of throughout Ephe- 
sus, became the occasion of a ludicrous accident, which occurred 
to some persons who entertained the mistaken notion that this fa- 
culty of curing diseases was transferable, and might be exercised 
by anybody that had enterprise enough to take the business in 
hand, and say over the form of words that seemed to be so effica- 
cious in the mouth of Paul. A set of conjurers of Jewish origin, 
the seven sons of Sceva, who went about professedly following the 
trade of casting out devils, straightway caught up this new im- 
provement on their old tricks, (for so they esteemed the divinely 
miraculous power of the apostle,) and soon found an opportunity 
to experiment with this, which they considered a valuable addition 
to their old stock of impositions. So, calling over the miserable 
possessed subject of their foolish experiment, .they said — " We ex- 
orcise you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches." But the demon was 
not slow to perceive the difference between this second-hand, pla- 
giaristic mode of operation, and the commanding tone of divine 
authority with which the demoniacal possessions were treated by 
the apostle of Jesus. He therefore quite turned their borrowed 
mummery into a jest, and cried out through the mouth of the pos- 
sessed man—-" Jesus I know, and Paul I know : — but who are ye f 9 



574 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Under the impulse of the frolicsome, mischievous spirit, the man 
upon whom they were playing their conjuring tricks, jumped up 
at once, and fell upon these rash doctors with all his might, and 
with all the energy of a truly crazy demoniac, beat the whole 
seven, tore their clothes off from them, and threshed them to such 
effect, that they were glad to stop their mummery, and make off 
as fast as possible, but did not escape till they were naked and 
wounded. The affair, of course, was soon very generally talked 
of, and the story made an impression, on the whole, decidedly fa- 
vorable to the true source of that miraculous agency, which, when 
foolishly tampered with, had produced such appalling results. 
Many, among both Jews and Greeks, were thereby led to repent- 
ance and faith, and more particularly those who had been in the 
way of practising these arts of imposition. A very general alarm 
prevailed among all the conjurers, and many came and confessed 
the mean tricks by which they had hitherto maintained their repu- 
tation as controllers of the powers of the invisible world. Many 
who had also, at great expense of time and money, acquired the 
arts of imposition, brought the costly books in which were con- 
tained all the mysterious details of their magical mummery, and 
burned them publicly, without regard to their immense estimated 
pecuniary value, which was not less than nine thousand dollars. 
In short, the results of this apparently trifling occurrence, followed 
up by the zealous preaching of Paul, effected a vast amount of 
good, so that the word of God mightily grew and prevailed. 

" In Acts xx. 31, the apostle says, that for the space of three years he preached at 
Ephesus. Grotius and Whitby hold that these three years are to be reckoned from 
his first coming to Ephesus, xviii. 19; that he does not specify being in any other 
city ; and that when it is said here, ' So that all Asia heard the word,' xix. 40, it arose 
from the concourse that, on a religious account, continually assembled in that city. 
The Jews also, from different parts of Asia, were induced by commerce, or obliged 
by the courts of judicature, to frequent it. Other commentators contend that, as only 
two years, with three months in the synagogue, are here mentioned, the remaining 
three-quarters of a year were partly engaged in a progress through the neighboring 
provinces." (Elsley, from Lightfoot and Doddridge.) 

" While he was at Ephesus, ' God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul ; 
so that from his body were brought unto the sick, handkerchiefs, or aprons, &c. &c. 
Acts xix. v. 11, 12. Li/jLUfivQiov, aprons, is slightly changed from the Latin semicinc- 
tum, which workmen put before them when employed at their occupations, to keep 
their clothes from soiling. The difference which Theophylact and Oecumenius 
make between these and tmv&apta, is, that the latter are applied to the head, as a cap or 
veil, and the former to the hands, as a handkerchief. ' They carry them,' says Oecu- 
menius, ' in their hands, to wipe off moisture from their face, as tears,' " &c. &c. 
(Calmet's Comment.) 

" ' And they counted the price of them, [the books,] and found it to be fifty thou- 
sand pieces of silver,' v. 19 — apyvpiov is used generally in the Old Testament, LXX. 
for the shekel, in value about 2s. 6d., or the total 6250Z., as Num. vii. 85 ; Deut. xxii. 
19 j 2 Kings xv. 20. Grotius. If it means the drachma, as more frequently used bv 



paul. 575 

the Greeks at 9d. each, the sum will be 1875Z." [$9000.] (Doddridge. Elsley's An- 
not. Williams on Pearson, pp. 53 — 55.) 

THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 

There is hardly one of the writings of Paul, about the date of 
which there has been so much discussion, or so many opinions as 
this ; but the results of all the elaborate investigations and argumen- 
tations of the learned, still leave this interesting chronological point 
in such doubt, that this must.be pronounced about the most uncer- 
tain in date of all the Pauline epistles. It may, however, without 
any inconsistency with the historical narrative of the Acts, or with 
any passages in the other epistles, be safely referred to the period of 
this residence in Ephesus, probably to the later part of it. The epis- 
tle itself contains no reference whatever, direct or indirect, to the 
place in which he was occupied at the time of writing, and only bare 
probabilities can therefore be stated on it, — nor can any decisive ob- 
jection be made to any one of six opinions which have been strongly 
urged. Some pronounce it very decidedly to have been the first of 
all the epistles written by Paul, and maintain that he wrote it soon 
after his first visit to them, at some time during the interval between 
Paul's departure from Galatia, and his departure from Thessalonica. 
Others date it at the time of his imprisonment in Rome, according 
to the common subscription of the epistle. Against this last may, 
however, perhaps be urged his reproof to the Galatians, that they 
" were so soon removed from him that called them to the grace of 
Christ," — an expression, nevertheless, too vague to form any certain 
basis for a chronological conclusion. The great majority of critics 
refer it to the period of his stay in Ephesus, — a view which entirely 
accords with the idea, that it must have been written soon after Paul 
had preached to them ; for on his last journey to Ephesus, he had 
passed through Galatia, as already narrated, confirming the churches. 
Some time had, no doubt, intervened since his preaching to them, 
sufficient at least to allow many heresies and difficulties to arise 
among them, and to pervert them from the purity of the truth, as 
taught to them by him. Certain false teachers had been among them 
since his departure, inculcating on all believers in Christ, the abso- 
lute necessity of a minute and rigid observance of Mosaic forms, for 
their salvation. They also directly attacked the apostolical charac- 
ter and authority of Paul, — declaring his opinion to be of no weight 
whatever, and to be opposed to that of the true original apostles of 
Jesus. These, Paul meets with great force in the very beginning of 
the epistle, entering at once into a particular account of the mode of 
his first entering the apostleship, — showing that it was not derived 
from the other apostles, but from the special commission of Christ 
himself, miraculously given. He also shows that he had, on this 
very question of Judaical rituals, conferred with the apostles at Je- 
rusalem, and had received the sanction of their approbation in that 



576 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

course 01 open communion which he had before followed, on his 
own ins'pired authority, and had ever since maintained, in the face 
of what he deemed inconsistencies in the conduct of Peter. He then 
attacks the Galatians themselves, in very violent terms, for their per- 
version of that glorious freedom into which he had brought the 
Christian doctrine, and fills up the greater part of the epistle with 
reproofs of these errors. 

His argument against the doctrines of the servile Judaizers is made 
up in his favorite mode of demonstration, by simile and metaphor, 
representing the Christian system under the form of the offspring of 
Abraham, and afterwards images the freedom of the true believers in 
Jesus, in the exalted privilege of the descendents of Sara, while 
those enslaved to forms are presented as analogous in their condition 
to the children of Hagar. He earnestly exhorts them, therefore, to 
stand fast in the freedom to which Christ has exalted them, and 
most emphatically condemns all observance of circumcision. Thus 
pointing out to them the purely spiritual nature of that covenant, of 
which they were now the favored subjects, he urges them to a truly 
spiritual course of life, bidding them aim at the attainment of a per- 
fect moral character, and makes the conclusion of the epistle emi- 
nently practical in its direction. He speaks of this epistle as being a 
testimony of the very particular interest which he feels in their 
spiritual prosperity, because (what appears contrary to his practice) 
he has written it with his own hand. To the very last, he is very 
earnest against those who are aiming to bring them back to the ob- 
servance of circumcision, and denounces those as actuated only by a 
base desire to avoid that persecution which they might expect from 
the Jews, if they should reject the Mosaic ritual. Referring to the 
cross of Christ as his only glory, he movingly alludes to the marks 
of his conformity to that standard, bearing as he does in his own 
body, the scars of the wounds received from the scourges of his 
Philippian persecutors. He closes without any mention of personal 
salutations, and throughout the whole makes none of those specifi- 
cations of names, with which most of his other epistles abound. In 
the opening salutation, he merely includes with himself those " bre- 
thren that are with him," which seems to imply that they knew who 
those brethren were, in some other way, — perhaps because he had 
but lately been among them with those same persons as his assistants 
in the ministry. 

On this very doubtful point, I have taken the views adopted by Witsius, Louis 
Cappel, Pearson, Wall, Hug, Hemsen, and Neander. The notion that it was writ- 
ten at Rome is supported by Theodoret, Lightfoot, and others, — of course, making it 
a late epistle. On the contrary, Michaelis makes it the earliest of all, and dates it 
in the year 49, at some place on Paul's route from Troas to Thessalonica. Marcion 
and Tertullian also supposed it to be one of the earliest epistles. Benson thinks it 
was written during Paul's first residence in Corinth. Lenfant and Beausobre, fol- 
lowed by Lardner, conjecture it to have been written either at Corinth or at Ephesus, 
during his first visit, either in A. D. 52, or 53. Fabricius and Mill date it A. D. 58, 
at some place on Paul's route to Jerusalem. Chrysostom and Theophylact, date it 



paul. 577 

before the epistle to the Romans. Grotius thinks it was written about the same time. 
From all which, the reader will see the justice of my conclusion, that nothing at all 
is known with any very great certainty about the matter. 

THE EPHESIAN MOB. 

Paul having now been a resident at Ephesus for nearly three 
years, and having seen such glorious results of his labors, soon 
began to think of revisiting some of his former fields of missionary 
exertion, more especially those Grecian cities of Europe which 
had been such eventful scenes to him, but a few years previous. 
He designed to go over Macedonia and Achaia, and then to visit 
Jerusalem ; and when communicating these plans to his friends at 
Ephesus, he remarked to them in conclusion — " And after that, I 
must also visit Rome." He therefore sent before him into Mace- 
donia, as the heralds of his approach, his former assistant, Timo- 
thy, and another helper not before mentioned, Erastus, who is after- 
wards mentioned as the treasurer of the city of Corinth. But Paul 
himself still waited in Asia for a short time, until some other pre- 
liminaries should be arranged for his removal. During this inci- 
dental delay, arose the most terrible commotion that had ever yet 
been excited against him, and one which very nearly cost him 
his life. 

It should be noticed that the conversion of so large a number 
of the heathen, through the preaching of Paul, had struck directly 
at the foundation of a very thriving business carried on in Ephe- 
sus, and connected with the continued prevalence and general 
popularity of that idolatrous worship, for which the city was so 
famous. Ephesus, as is well known, was the chief seat of the 
peculiar worship of that great Asian deity, who is now known, 
throughout all the world, where the apostolic history is read, by 
the name of " Diana of the Ephesians." It is perfectly cer- 
tain, however, that this deity had no real connexion, either in char- 
acter or in name, with that Roman goddess of the chase and of 
chastity, to whom the name Diana properly belongs. The true 
classic goddess Diana was a virgin, according to common stories, 
considered as the sister of Apollo, and was worshiped as the beau- 
tiful and youthful goddess of the chase, and of that virgin purity 
of which she was supposed to be an instance, though some stories 
present an exception to this part of her character. Upon her head, 
in most representations of her, was pictured a crescent, which was 
commonly supposed to show that she was also the goddess of the 
moon ; but a far more sagacious and rational supposition refers the 



578 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

first origin of this sign to a deeper meaning. But when the my- 
thologies of different nations began to be compared and united, she 
was identified with the goddess of the moon, and with that Asian 
goddess who bore among the Greeks the name of Artemis, which 
is in fact the name given by Luke as the title of the great goddess 
of the Ephesians. This Artemis, however, was a deity as di- 
verse in form, character, and attributes, from the classic Diana, as 
from any goddess in all the systems of ancient mythology ; and 
they never need have been confounded, but for the perverse folly 
of those who were bent, in spite of all reason, to find in the di- 
vinities of the eastern polytheism, the perfect synonyms to the 
objects of western idolatry. The Asian and Ephesian goddess, 
Artemis, had nothing whatever to do with hunting or with chastity. 
She was not represented as young, nor beautiful, nor nimble, nor 
as the sister of Apollo, but as a vast gigantic monster, with a crown 
of towers, with lions crouching upon her shoulders, and a great 
array of pictured or sculptured eagles and tigers over her whole 
figure ; and her figure was also strangely marked by a multitude 
of breasts in front. Under this monstrous figure, which evidently 
was no invention of the tasteful Greeks, but had originated in the 
debasing and grotesque idolatry of the Orientals, Artemis of the 
Ephesians was worshiped as the goddess of the earth, of fertility, 
of cities, and as the universal principle of life and wealth. She 
was known among the Syrians by the name of Ashtaroth, and was 
among the early objects of Hebrew idolatry. When the Romans, 
in their all-absorbing tolerance of idolatry, began to introduce into 
Italy the worship of the eastern deities, this goddess was also 
added there, but not under the name of Diana. The classic 
scholar is familiar with the allusions to this deity, worshiped under 
the name of Cybele, Tellus, Rhea, Berecynthia, and other such 
names, and in all the later poets of Rome, she is a familiar object, 
as " the tower-crowned Cybele." This was the goddess worshiped 
in many of the Grecian cities of Asia Minor, which at their first 
colonization, had adopted this aboriginal goddess of those fertile re- 
gions, of whose fertility, civilization, agricultural and commercial 
wealth, she seemed the fit and appropriate personification. But in 
none of these Asian cities was she worshiped with such peculiar 
honors and glories as in Ephesus, the greatest city of Asia Minor. 
Here was worshiped a much cherished image of her, which was 
said to have fallen from heaven, called from that circumstance 
the Diopetos ; which here was kept in that most splendid temple, 



paul. 579 

which is even now proverbial as having been one of the wonders 
of the ancient world. Being thus the most famous seat of her 
worship, Ephesus also became the centre of a great manufacture 
and trade in certain curious little images or shrines, representing 
this goddess, which were in great request, wherever her worship 
was regarded, being considered as the genuine and legitimate re- 
presentatives, as well as representations of the Ephesian deity. 

This explanation will account for the circumstances related by 
Luke, as ensuing in Ephesus, on the success of Paul's labors 
among the heathen, to whose conversion his exertions had been 
wholly devoted during the two last years of his stay in Ephesus. 
In converting the Ephesians from heathenism, he was guilty of 
no ordinary crime. He directly attacked a great source of profit 
to a large number of artizans in the city, who derived their whole 
support from the manufacture of those little objects of idolatry, 
which, of course, became of no value to those who believed Paul's 
doctrine, — that " those were no gods which were made with 
hands." This new doctrine, therefore, attracted very invidious 
notice from those who thus found their dearest interests very im- 
mediately and unfortunately affected, by the progress made by its 
preacher in turning away the hearts of Ephesians from their an- 
cient reverence for the shrines of Artemis ; and they therefore 
listened with great readiness to Demetrius, one of their number, 
when he proposed to remedy the difficulty. He showed them in 
a very clear though brief address, that " the craft was in danger," 
— that warning cry which so often bestirs the bigoted in defense of 
the object of their regard ; and after hearing his artful address, 
they all, full of wrath, with one accord raised a great outcry, in 
the usual form of commendation of the established idolatry of their 
city — " Great is Artemis of the Ephesians !" This noise being- 
heard by others, and, of course, attracting attention, every one 
who distinguished the words, by a sort of patriotic impulse, was 
driven to join in the cry, and presently the whole city was in an 
uproar ; — a most desirable condition of things, of course, for those 
who wished to derive advantage from a popular commotion. All 
bawling this senseless cry, with about as much idea of the occa- 
sion of the disturbance as could be expected from such a mob, the 
huddling multitudes learning the general fact, that the grand ob- 
ject of the tumult was to do some mischief to the Christians, and 
looking about for some proper person to be made the subject of 

public opinion, fell upon Gaius and Aristarchus of Macedoina, two 

7S 



580 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

traveling companions of Paul, who happened to be in the way, 
and dragged them to the theatre, whither the whole mob rushed 
at once, as to a desirable scene for any act of confusion and folly 
which they might choose to commit. Paul, with a lion-like spirit, 
caring naught for the mob, proposed to go in and make a speech 
to them ; but his friends, with far more prudence and cool sense 
than he, — knowing that an assembly of the people, roaring some 
popular outcry, is no more a subject of reason than so many raging 
wild beasts, — prevented him from going into the theatre, where he 
would no doubt have been torn to pieces, before he could have 
opened his mouth. Some of the great magistrates of Asia, too, 
who were friendly to him, hearing of his rash intentions, sent to 
him a very urgent request, that he would not venture himself 
among the mob. Meanwhile the outcry continued, — the theatre 
being crowded full, and the whole city constantly pouring out to 
see what was the matter, and every soul joining in the religious 
and patriotic shout — " Great is Artemis of the Ephesians !" And 
so they went on, every one, of course, according to the universal 
and everlasting practice on such occasions, making all the noise 
he could, but not one, except the rascally silversmiths, knowing 
what upon earth they were all bawling there for. Still this igno- 
rance of the object of the assembly kept nobody still ; but all, with 
undiminished fervor, kept plying their lungs to swell the general 
roar. As it is described in the very graphic and picturesque lan- 
guage of Luke — " Some cried one things and some another ; for the 
whole assembly was confused ; — and the more knew not wherefore 
they were come together," — which last circumstance is a very com- 
mon difficulty in such assemblies, in all ages. At last, searching 
for some other persons as proper subjects to exercise their religious 
zeal upon, they looked about upon the Jews, who were always 
a suspected class among the heathen, and seized one Alexander, 
who seems to have been one of the Christian converts, for the 
Jews thrust him forward as a kind of scape-goat for themselves. 
Alexander made the usual signs, soliciting their attention to his 
words ; but as soon as the people understood that he was a Jew, 
they all drowned his Voice with the general cry — " Great is Ar- 
temis of the Ephesians !" and this they kept up steadily for two 
whole hours, as it were with one voice. Matters having come to 
this pass, the recorder of the city came forward, and having hushed 
the people, — who had some reverence for the lawful authorities, 
that fortunately were not responsible to them, — and made them a 






PAUL. 581 

very sensible speech, reminding them that since no one doubted 
the reverence of the Ephesians for the goddess Artemis, and for 
the Diopetos, there surely was no occasion for all this disturb- 
ance to demonstrate a fact that everybody knew. He told them 
that the men against whom they were raising this disturbance had 
been neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of the goddess ; 
so that if Demetrius and his fellow-craft had any thing justly 
against these men, as having injured their business, they had their 
proper remedy at law. He hinted to them also that they were all 
liable to be called to account for this manifest breach of Roman 
law, and this defiance of the majesty of the Roman government ; 
— a hint which brought most of them to their senses ; for all who 
had any thing to lose, dreaded the thought of giving occasion to 
the awfully remorseless government of the province, to fine them, 
— an act of retributive justice which would most unhesitatingly 
be executed, on any reasonable excuse. They all dispersed, there- 
fore, with no more words. 

" c Silver shrines? v. 24. The heathens used to carry the images of their gods in 
procession from one city to another. This was done in a chariot which was solemnly 
consecrated for that employment, and by the Romans styled Thensa, that is, the cha- 
riot of their gods. But besides this, it was placed in a box or shrine, called Fercu- 
lum. Accordingly, when the Romans conferred divine honors on their great men, 
alive or dead, they had the Circen games, and in them the Thensa and Ferculum, the 
chariot and the shrine, bestowed on them; as it is related of Julius Caesar. This 
Ferculum among the Romans did not differ much from the Grecian Naiis, a little 
chapel, representing the form of a temple, with an image in it, w^hich, being set upon 
an altar, or any other solemn place, having the doors opened, the image was seen by 
the spectators either in a standing or a sitting posture. An old anonymous scholiast 
upon Aristotle's Rhetoric, lib. i. c. 15, has these words : NaoTrotoi ol tuvs vaovs noiovai, 

firoi liKovoardcria, riva fxikpa £v\iva a 7ra>Xa<n, observing the vaoi here to be ciKOvocrracna, chap- 

lets, with images in them, of wood, or metal, (as here of silver,) which they made and 
sold, as in v. 25, they are supposed to do. Athenaeus speaks of the xaSiaxos, ' which,' 
says he, ' is a vessel wherein they place their images of Jupiter.' The learned Ca- 
saubon states, that ' these images were put in cases, which were made like chapels. 
(Deipnos. lib. ii. p. 500.) So St. Chrysostom likens them to ' little cases or shrines.' 
Dion says of the Roman ensign, that it was a little temple, and in it a golden eagle. 
(PojiaiK. lib. 40.) And in another place : ' There was a little chapel of Juno, set 
upon a table.' lb. lib. 39. This is the meaning of the tabernacle of Moloch, Acts 
vii. 43, "where by the aKrivti, tabernacle, is meant the chaplet, a shrine of that false god. 
The same was also the n-oo rvaa, (Succoih Benoth,) the tabernacle of Benoih, or Venus. 1 " 
(Hammond's Annot. Williams on Pearson, p. 55.) 

Robbers of temples. — Think of the miserable absurdity of the common English 
translation 'in this passage, (Acts xix. 37,) where the original apdavXm is expressed by 
"robbers of churches!" Now, who ever thought of applying the English word 
" church" to any thing whatever but a " Christian assembly," or " Christian place of 
assembly V Why, then, is this phrase put in the mouth of a heathen officer, address- 
ing a heathen assembly, about persons charged with violating the sanctity of heathen 
places of worship 7 Such a building as a church, (exxXwia, ecclesia,) devoted to the 
worship of the true God, was not known till more than a century after this time, in 
the reign of Constantine, who first erected buildings consecrated especially to the 
worship of the Christian God ; and the Greek word lspdv 3 (hieron,) which enters into 
the composition of the w r ord in the sacred text, thus mistranslated, was never applied 
to a Christian place of worship. 



Jmt 



582 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 



FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 

Paul's residence in Ephesus is distinguished in his literary history, 
as the period in which he wrote that most eloquent and animated of 
his epistles, — " the first to the Corinthians." It was written towards 
the close of his stay in Asia, about the time of the passover ; accord- 
ing to established calculations, therefore, in the spring of the year of 
Christ 57. The more immediate occasion of his writing to the Co- 
rinthian Christians, was a letter which he had received from them, 
by the hands of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus. Paul had 
previously written to them an epistle, (now lost,) in which he gave 
them some directions about their deportment, which they did not 
fully understand, and of which they desired an explanation in their 
letter. Many of these questions, which this epistle of the Corinthi- 
ans contained, are given by Paul, in connexion with his own an- 
swers to them ; and from this source it is learned that they concerned 
several points of expediency and propriety about matrimony. These 
are answered by Paul, very distinctly and fully; but much of his 
epistle is taken up with instructions and reproofs on many points 
not referred to in their inquiries. The Corinthian church was made 
up of two very opposite constituent parts, so unlike in their charac- 
ter, as to render exceedingly complicated the difficulties of bringing 
all under one system of faith and practice ; and the apostolic founder 
was, at one time, obliged to combat heathen licentiousness, and at 
another, Jewish bigotry and formalism. The church also, having 
been too soon left without the presence of a fully competent head, 
had been very loosely filled up with a great variety of improper per- 
sons, — some hypocrites, and some profligates, — a difficulty not alto- 
gether peculiar to the Corinthian church, nor to those of the apos- 
tolic age. But there were certainly some very extraordinary 
irregularities in the conduct of their members, some of whom were in 
the habit of getting absolutely "drunken" at the sacramental table ; 
and others were guilty of great sins in respect to general purity of 
life. Another peculiar difficulty, which had arisen in the church of 
Corinth, during Paul's absence, was the formation of sects and par- 
ties, each claiming some one of the great Christian teachers as its 
head; some of them claiming Paul as their only apostolic authority; 
some again preferring the doctrines of Apollos, who had been labor- 
ing among them while Paul was in Ephesus ; and others again, re- 
ferred to Peter as the true apostolic chief, while they wholly denied 
to Paul any authority whatever, as an apostle. There had, indeed, 
arisen a separate party, strongly opposed to Paul, headed by a pro- 
minent person, who had done a great deal to pervert the truth, 
and to lessen the character of Paul in various ways, which are al- 
luded to by Paul in many passages of his epistle, in a very indignant 
tone. Other difficulties are described by him, and various excesses 
are reproved, as a scandal to the Christian character j such as an in- 



paul. 583 

cestuous marriage among their members, — lawsuits before heathen 
magistrates, — dissolute conformity to the licentious worship of the 
Corinthian goddess, whose temple was so infamous for its scandalous 
rites and thousand priestesses. Some of the Corinthian Christians 
had been in the habit of visiting this and other heathen temples, and 
of participating in the scenes of feasting, riot, and debauchery, 
which were carried on there as a part of the regular forms of idola- 
trous worship. 

The public worship of the Corinthian church had been disturbed 
also by various irregularities which Paul*reprehends ; — the abuse of 
the gift of tongues, aud the affectation of an unusual dress in preach- 
ing, both by men and women. In the conclusion of his epistle he 
expatiates, too, at great length, on the doctrine of the resurrection of 
the body, vehemently arguing against some Corinthian heretics, who 
had denied any but a spiritual existence beyond the grave. This 
argument may justly be pronounced the best specimen of Paul's very 
peculiar style, reasoning as he does, with a kind of passion, and in- 
terrupting the regular series of logical demonstrations, by fiery bursts 
of enthusiasm, personal appeals, poetical quotations, illustrative si- 
miles, violent denunciations of error, and striking references to his 
own circumstances. All these, nevertheless, point very directly and 
connectedly at the great object of the argument, and the whole train 
of reasoning swells and mounts, towards the conclusion, in a man- 
ner most remarkably effective, constituting one of the most sublime 
argumentative passages ever written. He then closes the epistle 
with some directions about the mode of collecting the contributions 
for the brethren in Jerusalem. He promises to visit them, and make 
a long stay among them, when he goes on his journey through Ma- 
cedonia, — a route which, he assures them, he had now determined 
to take, as mentioned by Luke, in his account of the preliminary 
mission of Timothy and Erastus, before the time of the mob at 
Ephesus; but should not leave Ephesus until after Pentecost, be- 
cause a great and effectual door was there opened to him, and there 
were many opposers. He speaks of Timothy as being then on the 
mission before mentioned, and exhorts them not to despise this young 
brother, if he should visit them, as they might expect. After seve- 
ral other personal references, he signs his own name, with a general 
salutation ; and from the terms in which he expresses this particular 
mark already alluded to in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, 
it is very reasonable to conclude that he was not his own penman 
in any of these epistles, but used an amanuensis, authenticating the 
whole by his signature, with his own hand, only at the end j and 
this opinion of his method of carrying on his correspondence, is now 
commonly, perhaps universally, adopted by the learned. 

" Chap. xvi. 10, 11. ' Now, if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you with- 
out fear; for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do: let no man therefore 
despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me, for I look 
for him with the brethren.' 



584 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

"From the passage considered in the preceding number, it appears that Timothy 
was sent to Corinth, either with, the epistle or before it: ' for this cause have I sent 
unto you Timotheus.' From the passage now quoted, we infer that Timothy was 
not sent with the epistle; for had he been the bearer of the letter, or accompanied it, 
would St. Paul in that letter have said, ' if Timothy come V Nor is the sequel con- 
sistent with the supposition of his carrying the letter; for if Timothy was with the 
apostle when he wrote the letter, could he say, as he does, ' I look for him with the 
brethren V I conclude, therefore, that Timothy had left St. Paul to proceed upon his 
journey before the letter was written. Further, the passage before us seems to imply, 
that Timothy was not expected by St. Paul to arrive at Corinth, till after they had 
received the letter. He gives them directions in the letter how to treat him when he 
should arrive : ' if he come,' act towards him so and so. Lastly, the whole form of 
expression is more naturally applicable to the supposition of Timothy's coming to 
Corinth, not directly from St. Paul, but from some other quarter; and that his" in- 
structions had been, when he should reach Corinth, to return. Now, how stands 
this matter in the history'? Turn to the nineteenth chapter and twenty-first verse of 
the Acts, and you will find that Timothy did not, w 7 hen sent from Ephesus, where 
he left St. Paul, and where the present epistle was written, proceed by a straight 
course to Corinth, but that he went round through Macedonia. This clears up every 
thing ; for, although Timothy was sent forth upon his journey before the letter was 
written, yet he might not reach Corinth till after the letter arrived there; and he 
would come to Corinth, and he did come, not directly from St. Paul, at Ephesus, but 
from some part of Macedonia. Here therefore is a circumstantial and critical agree- 
ment, and unquestionably without design ; for neither of the two passages in the 
epistle mentions Timothy's journey into Macedonia at all. though nothing but a cir- 
cuit of that kind can explain and reconcile the expressions which the writer uses." 
(Paley's Hor. Paul. I Cor. No. IV.) 

" Chap. v. 7, 8. ' For even Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us: therefore let 
us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wicked- 
ness, but w T ith the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.' j 

" Dr. Benson tells us, that from this passage, compared with chapter xvi. 8, it has 
been conjectured that this epistle was written about the time of the Jewish passover; 
and to me the conjecture appears to be very well founded. The passage to which 
Dr. Benson refers us, is this: ' I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.' With this 
passage he ought to have joined another in the same context: 'And it may be that I 
will abide, yea, and winter with you :' for from the two passages laid together, it fol- 
lows that the epistle was written before Pentecost, yet after winter; which neces- 
sarily determines the date to the part of the year within which the passover falls. It 
was written before Pentecost, because he says — ' I will tarry at Ephesus until Pente- 
cost.' It was written after winter, because he tells them — ' It may be that I will abide, 
yea, and winter with you.' The wanter w T hich the apostle purposed to pass at Co- 
rinth, was undoubtedly the winter next ensuing to the date of the epistle ; yet it was 
a w r inter subsequent to the ensuing Pentecost, because he did not intend to set for- 
ward upon his journey till after the feast. The words — ' let us keep the feast, not 
with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the un- 
leavened bread of sincerity and truth,' look very much like words suggested by the 
season ; at least they have, upon that supposition, a force and significancy which do 
not belong to them upon any other ; and it is not a little remarkable, that the hints 
casually dropped in the epistle, concerning particular parts of the year, should coin- 
cide with this supposition." (Paley's Hor. Paul. 1 Cor. No. XII.) 

I have felt much hesitation about the arrangement of the date of this epistle. 
Most writers consider it to have been written before the time of the mob. But the 
passage in chap. xv. verse 32, seems to contain so distinct a reference to the recent 
occurrence of these dreadful commotions, that I feel justified in placing the writing 
of the epistle after the mob. Hemsen favors this view. (Apost. Paul. III. 1, 3.) 
The statement in Acts xx. 1, does not appear to require an immediate departure, after 
the hushing of the mob. 

SECOND VOYAGE TO EUROPE. 

After the disturbances connected with the mob raised by Deme- 
trius had wholly ceased, and public attention was no longer di- 
rected to the motions of the preachers of the Christian doctrine, 



paul. 585 

Paul determined to execute the plan which he had for some time 
contemplated, of going over his European fields of labor again, 
according to his universal and established custom of revisiting and 
confirming his work, within a moderately brief period after first 
opening the ground for evangelization. Assembling the disciples 
about him, he bade them farewell, and turning northward, came 
to Troas, whence, six or seven years before, he had set out on his 
first voyage to Macedonia. The plan of his journey, as he first 
arranged it, had been to sail from the shores of Asia Minor directly 
for Corinth. He had resolved, however, not to go to that city, 
until the very disagreeable difficulties which had there arisen in 
the church had been entirely removed, according to the directions 
given in the epistle which he had written to them from Ephesus ; 
because he did not desire, after an absence of years, to visit them 
in such circumstances, when his Corinthian converts were divided 
among themselves, and against him, — and when his first duties 
would necessarily be those of a rigid censor. He therefore waited 
at Troas, with great impatience, for a message from them, an- 
nouncing the settlement of all difficulties. This he expected to 
receive through Titus, a person now first mentioned in the apos- 
tle's history. Waiting with great impatience for this beloved bro- 
ther, he found no rest in his spirit, and though a door was evi- 
dently opened by the Lord for the preaching of the gospel in Troas, 
he had no spirit for the good work there ; and desiring to be as 
near the great object of his anxieties as possible, he accordingly 
took leave of the brethren at Troas, and crossed the Aegean into 
Macedonia, by his former route. Here he remained in great dis- 
tress of mind, until his soul was at last comforted by the long ex- 
pected arrival of Titus. Luke only says, that he went over those 
parts and gave them much exhortation. But though his route is 
not given, his apostolic labors are known to have extended to the 
borders of Ulyricum. At this time, also, he made another import- 
ant contribution to the list of the apostolic writings. 

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 

There is no part of the New Testament canon, about the date of 
which all authorities are so well agreed, as on the place and time, at 
which Paul wrote his second epistle to the Corinthians. All authori- 
ties, ancient and modern, decide that it was written during the second 
visit of Paul to Macedonia ; although as to the exact year in which 
this took place, they are not entirely unanimous. The passages in 
the epistle itself, which refer to Macedonia as the region in which 
77 






586 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

the apostle then was, are so numerous, indeed, that there can be no 
evasion of their evidence. A great topic of interest with him, at the 
time of writing this epistle, was the collecting of the contributions 
proposed for the relief of the Christian brethren in Jerusalem ; and 
upon this he enlarges much, informing the Corinthians of the great 
progress he was making- in Macedonia in this benevolent under- 
taking, and what high hopes he had entertained and expressed to 
the Macedonians, of the zeal and ability of those in Achaia, about 
the contributions. This matter had been noticed and arranged by 
him, in his former epistle to them, as already noticed, and he now 
proposed to send forward Titus and another person, (who is com- 
monly supposed to be Luke,) to take charge of these funds, thus col- 
lected. He speaks of coming also himself, after a little time, and 
makes some allusions to the difficulties which had constituted the 
subject of the great part of his former epistle. Of their amendment 
in the particulars then so severely censured, he had received a full 
account through Titus, when that beloved brother came on from 
Corinth, to join Paul in Macedonia. Paul assures the Corinthians 
of the very great joy caused in him, by the good news of their moral 
and spiritual improvement, and renews his ardent protestations of 
deep affection for them. The incestuous person, whom they had 
excommunicated, in conformity with the denunciatory directions 
given in the former epistle, he now forgives ; and as the offender has 
since appeared to be truly penitent, he now urges his restoration to 
the consolations of Christian fellowship, lest he should be swallowed 
up with too much sorrow. He defends his apostolic character for 
prudence and decision, against those who considered his change of 
plans about coming directly from Ephesus to Corinth, as an exhibi- 
tion of lightness and unsettled purpose. His real object in this delay 
and change of purpose, as he tells tnem, was, that they might have 
time to profit by the reproofs contained in his former epistle, so that 
by the removal of the evils of which he so bitterly complained, he 
might finally be enabled to come to them, not in sorrow, nor in hea- 
viness for their sins, but in joy for their reformation. This fervent 
hope had been fulfilled by the coming of Titus to Macedonia, for 
whom he had waited in vain, with so much anxiety at Troas, as 
the expected messenger of these tidings of their spiritual condition ; 
and he was now therefore prepared to pass on to them from Mace- 
donia, to which region he tells them he had gone from Troas, instead 
of to Corinth, because he had been disappointed about meeting Titus 
on the eastern side of the Aegean. With the exception of these 
things, the epistle is taken up with a very ample and eloquent exhi- 
bition of his true powers and office as an apostle ; and in the course 
of this argument, so necessary for the re-establishment of his au- 
thority among those who had lately been -disposed to contemn it, he 
makes many very interesting allusions to his own personal history. 
The date of the epistle is commonly supposed, and with good reason, 



paul. 587 

to be A. D. 58, the fifth of Nero's reign, and one year after the pre- 
ceding epistle. 

" Chap. ii. 12, 13. { When I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door 
was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Ti- 
tus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.' 

" To establish a conformity between this passage and the history, nothing more is 
necessary to be presumed, than that St. Paul proceeded from Ephesus to Macedonia, 
upon the same course by which he came back from Macedonia to Ephesus, or rather 
to Miletus, in the neighborhood of Ephesus; in other words, that, in his journey to 
the peninsula of Greece, he went and returned the same way. St. Paul is now in 
Macedonia, where he had lately arrived from Ephesus. Our quotation imports that 
in his journey he had stopped at Troas. Of this, the history says nothing, leaving 
us only the short account, ' that Paul departed from Ephesus, for to go into Mace- 
donia.' But the history says, that in his return from Macedonia to Ephesus, ' Paul 
sailed from Philippi to Troas; and that, when the disciples came together on the first 
day of the week, to break bread, Paul preached unto them all night; that from Troas 
he went by land to Assos; from Assos, taking ship and coasting along the front of 
Asia Minor, he came by Mitylene to Miletus.' Which account proves, first, that 
Troas lay in the way by which St. Paul passed between Ephesus and. Macedonia ; se- 
condly, that he had disciples there. In one journey between these two places, the 
epistle, and in another journey between the same places, the history makes him stop 
at this city. Of the first journey, he is made to say — ' that a door was in that city 
opened unto him of the Lord ;' in the second, we find disciples there collected around 
him, and the apostle exercising his ministry with, what was, even in him, more than 
ordinary zeal and labor. The epistle, therefore, is in this instance confirmed, if not 
by the terms, at least by the probability of the history; a species of confirmation by 
no means to be despised, because, as far as it reaches, it is evidently. uncontrived. 

" Grotius, I know, refers the arrival at Troas, to which the epistle alludes, to a 
different period, but I think very improbably ; for nothing appears to me more certain, 
than that the meeting with Titus, which St. Paul expected at Troas, was the same 
meeting which took place in Macedonia, viz. upon Titus's coming out of Greece. 
In the quotation before us, he tells the Corinthians — c When I came to Troas, I had 
no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus, my brother; but, taking my leave of 
them, I went from thence into Macedonia.' Then in the seventh chapter he writes 
— ' When we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled 
On every side; without were fightings, within were fears ;. nevertheless, God. that 
comforteth them that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.' These 
two passages plainly relate to the same journey of Titus, in meeting with whom St. 
Paul had been disappointed at Troas, and rejoiced in Macedonia. And amongst 
other reasons which fix the former passage to the coming of Titus out of Greece, is 
the consideration, that it was nothing to the Corinthians that St. Paul did not meet 
with Titus at Troas, were it not that he was to bring intelligence from Corinth. The 
mention of the disappointment in this place, upon any other supposition, is irrela- 
tive." (Paley's Hor. Paul. 2 Cor. No. VIII.) 

SECOND JOURNEY TO CORINTH. 

Among his companions in Macedonia, was Timothy, his ever 
zealous and affectionate assistant in the apostolic ministry, who 
had been sent thither before him to prepare the way, and had been 
laboring in that region ever since, as plainly appears from the fact, 
that he is joined with Paul in the opening address of the second 
epistle to the Corinthians, — a circumstance in itself sufficient to 
overthrow a very common supposition of the critics, — that Timo- 
thy returned to Asia ; that Paul at that time " left him in Ephe- 
sus," and at this time wrote his first epistle to Timothy from Ma- 
cedonia. It is also most probable that Timothy was the personal 



588 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

companion of Paul, not only during the whole period of his se- 
cond ministration in Macedonia, but also accompanied him from 
that province to Corinth; because Timothy is distinctly mentioned 
by Luke, among those who went with Paul from Macedonia to 
Asia, after his brief second residence in that city. No particulars 
whatever are given by Luke of the labors of Paul in Corinth. 
From his epistles, however, it is learned that he was at this time 
occupied in part, in receiving the contributions made throughout 
Achaia for the church of Jerusalem, to which city he was now pre- 
paring to go. The difficulties, of which so much mention had 
been made in his epistles, were now entirely removed, and his 
work there doubtless went on without any of that opposition which 
had arisen after his first departure. There is, however, one very 
important fact in his literary history, which took place in Corinth, 
during his residence there. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 

From the very earliest period of apostolic labor, after the ascen- 
sion, there appear to have been in Rome some Jews who professed 
the faith of Jesus. Among the visiters in Jerusalem at the Pente- 
cost, when the Holy Spirit first descended, were some from Rome, 
who sharing in the gifts of that remarkable effusion, and returning 
to their home in the imperial city, would there in themselves consti- 
tute the rudiment of a Christian church. It is perfectly certain that 
they had never been blessed in their own city with the personal pre- 
sence of an apostle ; and all their associated action as a Christian 
church, must therefore have been entirely the result of a voluntary 
organization, suggested by the natural desire to keep up and to 
spread the doctrines which they had first received in Jerusalem, 
under such remarkable circumstances. Yet the members of the 
church would be not merely those who were converted at the Pen- 
tecost ; for there was a constant influx of Jews from all parts of the 
world to Rome, and among these there would naturally be some who 
had participated in the light of the gospel, now so widely diffused 
throughout the eastern section of the world. There is, moreover, 
distinct information of certain persons, of high qualifications as 
Christian teachers, who had at Rome labored in the cause of the 
gospel, and had no doubt been among the most efficient means of 
that advancement of the Roman church, which seems to be implied 
in the communication now first made to them by Paul. Aquilas 
and Priscilla, who had been the intimate friends of Paul at Corinth, 
and who had been already so active and distinguished as laborers in 
the gospel cause, both in that city and in Ephesus, had returned to 
Rome on the death of Claudius, when that emperor's foolish decree 
of banishment, against the Jews, expired along with its author, in 



paul. 589 

the year of Christ, 54. These, on re-establishing their residence in 
Rome, made their own house a place of assembly for a part of the 
Christians in the capital, — probably for such as resided in their own 
immediate neighborhood, while others sought different places, ac- 
cording as suited their convenience in this particular. Many other 
persons are mentioned by Paul at the close of this epistle, as having 
been active in the work of the gospel at Rome ; — among whom An- 
dronicus and Janias are particularly noticed with respect, as having 
highly distinguished themselves in apostolic labors. From all these 
evangelizing efforts, the church of Rome attained great importance, 
and was now in great need of the counsels and presence of an apos- 
tle, to confirm it, and impart to its members spiritual gifts. It had 
long been an object of attention and interest to Paul, and he had 
already expressed a determination to visit the imperial city, in the 
remarks which he made to the brethren at Ephesus, when he was 
making arrangements to go into Macedonia and Achaia. The way 
was afterwards opened for this visit, by a very peculiar providence, 
which he does not seem to have then anticipated ; but while residing 
in Corinth, bis attention being very particularly called to their spi- 
ritual condition, he could not wait till he should have an opportunity 
to see them personally, to counsel them ; but wrote to them this very 
copious and elaborate epistle, which seems to have been the subject 
of more comment among dogmatic theologians, than almost any 
other portion of his writings, on account of its being supposed to fur- 
nish different polemic writers with the most important arguments for 
the peculiar dogmas of one or another, according to the fancy of 
each. It undoubtedly is the most doctrinal and didactic of all Paul's 
epistles, alluding very little to local circumstances, which are the 
theme of so large a part of most of his writings, but attacking di- 
rectly certain general errors entertained by the Jews, on the subject 
of justification, predestination, election, and many peculiar privileges 
which they attributed to themselves as the descendents of Abraham. 
This epistle, like most of the rest, was written by an amanuensis, 
who is herein particularly named, as Tertius, — a word of Roman 
origin ; but beyond this nothing else is known of him. It was car- 
ried to Rome by Phebe, an active female member of the church at 
Cenchreae, the port of Corinth, who happened to be journeying to 
Rome for some other purposes, and is earnestly recommended by 
Paul to the friendly regard of the church there. 

RETURN TO ASIA. 

After passing three months in Corinth, he took his departure 
from that city on his pre-determined voyage to the east, the direc- 
tion of which was somewhat changed by the information that the 
Jews of the place where he then was, were plotting some mischief 
against him, which he thought best to avoid by taking a different 



590 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

route from that before planned, which was a direct voyage to Syria. 
To escape the danger prepared for him by them, at his expected 
place of embarkation, he first turned northward by land, through 
Macedonia to Philippi, and thence sailed by the now familiar track 
over the Aegean to Troas. On this journey, he was accompanied 
by quite a retinue of apostolic assistants, — not only his faithful 
disciple and companion Timothy, but also Sosipater of Beroea, 
Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, Gaius, or Caius of 
Derbe, and Luke also, who now carries on the apostolic narrative 
in the first person, thus showing that he was himself a sharer in 
the adventures which he narrates. Besides these immediate com- 
panions, two brethren from Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus, took 
the direct route from Corinth to Troas, at which place they waited 
for the rest of the apostolic company, who took the circuitous 
route through Macedonia. The date of the departure of Paul is 
very exactly fixed by his companion Luke, who states that they 
left Philippi at the time of the passover, which was in the middle 
of March; and other circumstances have enabled modern critics 
to fix the occurrence in the year of Christ 59. After a five days' 
voyage, arriving at Troas on Saturday, they made a stay of seven 
days in that place ; and on the first day of the week, the Chris- 
tians of that place having assembled for the communion usual on 
the Lord's day, Paul preached to them; and as it was the last day 
of his stay, he grew very earnest in his discourse and protracted 
it very late, speaking two whole hours to the company, who were 
met in the great upper hall, where, in all Jewish houses, these fes- 
tal entertainments and social meetings were always held. It was, 
of course, the evening, when the assembly met, for this was the 
usual time for a social party, and there were many lights in the 
room, which, with the number of people, must have made the air 
very warm, and had the not very surprising effect of causing drow- 
siness, in at least one of Paul's hearers^ a young man named Eu- 
tychus, whose interest in what was said, could not keep his atten- 
tion alive against the pressure of drowsiness. He fell asleep ; and 
slipping over the side of the gallery, in the third loft, fell into the 
court below, where he was taken up lifeless. But Paul, hearing 
of the accident, stopped his discourse, and going down to the 
young man, fell on him and embraced him, saying — " Trouble not 
yourselves, for the life is in him." And his words were verified 
by the result ; for they soon brought him up alive, and were not 
a little comforted. Paul, certain of his recovery, did not suffer 



PAUL. 591 

the accident to mar the enjoyment of the social farewell meeting ; 
bnt going up and breaking bread with them all, talked with them 
a long time, passing the whole night in this pleasant way, and did 
not leave them till day-break, when he started to go by land over 
to Assos, about twenty-four miles southeast of Troas, on the Adra- 
myttian gulf, which. sets up between the north side of the island 
of Lesbos and the mainland. His companions, coming around by 
Water, through the mouth of the gulf, took Paul on board at Assos, 
according to his plan : and then, instead of turning back, and sail- 
ing out into the open sea, around the outside of Lesbos, ran up 
the gulf to the eastern end of the north coast of the island, where 
there is another outlet to the gulf, between the eastern shore of 
Lesbos and the continent. Sailing southward through this passage, 
after a course of between thirty and forty miles, they came to Mity- 
lene, on the southeastern side of the island. Thence passing out 
of the strait, they sailed southwestward, coming between Chios and 
the mainland, and arrived the next day at Trogyllium, at the 
southwest corner of Samos. Then turning their course towards 
the continent, they came in one day to Miletus, near the mouth of 
the Maeander, about forty miles south of Ephesus. 

Landing here, and desiring much to see some of his Ephesian 
brethren before his departure to Jerusalem, he sent to the elders 
of the church in that city, and on their arrival poured out his 
whole soul to them in a parting address, which for pathetic ear- 
nestness and touching beauty, is certainly, beyond any doubt, the 
most splendid passage that all the records of ancient eloquence can 
furnish. No force can be added to it by a new version, nor can 
any recapitulation of its substance do justice to its beauty. At 
the close, took place a most affecting farewell. In the simple and 
forcible description of Luke, (who was himself present at the 
moving scene, seeing and hearing all he narrates,) — " When Paul 
had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all." 
The subjects of this prayer were the guardians of that little flock 
which he, amid perils and death, had gathered from the heathen 
waste of Ionic Asia to the fold of Christ. When he left it last, 
the raging wolves of persecution and wrath, — the wild beasts of 
Ephesus, — were howling death and destruction to the devoted be- 
lievers of Christ, and they were still environed with temptations 
and dangers, that threatened to overwhelm these feeble ones, left 
thus early without the fostering care of their apostolic shepherd. 
Passing on his way to the great scene of his coming trials, he 



592 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

could not venture among them to give them his parting counsels, 
and could now only intrust to their constituted guardians, this dear 
charge, with renewed exhortations to them to be faithful, as in the 
presence of their God, to those objects of his labors, his cares, his 
prayers, and his daily tears. Amid the sorrows of that long fare- 
well, arose on the prophetic vision of the apostle some gloomy 
foreshadowings of future woes to fall on that Ephesian charge ; 
and this deepened the melancholy feeling of his heart almost to 
agony. This no doubt was the burden of his last prayer, when 
with their elders, and for them, he kneeled down on the shore, and 
sent up in earnest petition to God, that voice which they were 
doomed to hear no more for ever. 

Such passages as this in the life and words of Paul, constitute 
a noble addition to the reader's idea of his character. They show 
how nobly were intermingled in the varied frame of his spirit, the 
affectionate, the soft, and the winning traits, with the high, the 
stern, the harsh, and the bitter feelings, that so often were called 
out by the unparalleled trials of his situation. They show that 
he truly felt and acted out, to the life, that divine principle of 
Christian love which inspired the most eloquent effort of his pen ; 
— and that he trusted not to the wonder-working powers that 
moved his lips, as with the eloquence of men and angels, — not to 
the martyr-spirit, that, sacrificing all earthly substance, devoted it- 
self to the raging flames of persecution, in the cause of God, — not 
to the genius whose discursive glance searched all the mysteries 
of human and divine knowledge, — but to that pure, exalted, and 
exalting spirit of ardent love for those for whom he lived like his 
Savior, and for whom he was ready to die like him, also. This 
was the inspiration of his words, his writings, and his actions, — 
the motive and spirit of his devotion, — the energy of his being. 
Wherever he went, and whatever he did, — in spite of the frequent 
outbreaks of his rougher and fiercer nature, this honest, fervent, 
animated spirit of charity, — glowing not to inflame, but to melt, — 
softened the austerities of his character, and kindled in all who 
truly knew him, a deep and lasting affection for him, like that 
which was so strikingly manifested on this occasion. Who can 
wonder that to a man thus constituted, the lingering Ephesians 
still clung with such enthusiastic attachment ? In the fervid ac- 
tion of that Oriental clime, they fell on his neck and kissed him, 
sorrowing most of all for the words which he said, — that they 
should see his face no more. Still loth to take their last look at 



78 



paul. 593 

one so loved, they accompanied him to the ship, which bore him 
away from them, to perils, sufferings, and chains, — perhaps to 
death. 

" Assos was a sea-port town, situated on the southwest part of the province of 
Troas, and over against the island Lesbos. By land it is much nearer Troas than 
by sea, because of a promontory that runs a great way into the sea, and must be 
doubled to come to Assos, which was perhaps the reason that the apostle chose rather 
to walk it." 

" Mitylene (ch. xx. ver. 14) was one of the principal cities in the island of Lesbos, 
situated on a peninsula with a commodious haven on each side ; the whole island was 
also called by that name, as well as Pentapolis, from the five cities in it, viz., Issa or 
Antissa, Pyrrhe, Eressos, Arisba, and Mitylene. It is at present called Metelin. 
The island is one of the largest in the Archipelago, and was renowned for the many 
eminent persons it produced; such as Sappho, the inventress of Sapphic verses, — 
Alcaeus, a famous Lyric poet, — Pittacus, one of the seven wise men of Greece, — 
Theophrastus, the noble physician and philosopher, — and Arion the celebrated musi- 
cian. It is now in the possession of the Turks. As mentioned by St. Luke, it may 
be understood either the island or the city itself." 

"Chios (ver. 15) was an island in the Archipelago, next to Lesbos, both as to situa- 
tion and size. It lies over against Smyrna, and is not above four leagues distant 
from the Asiatic continent. Horace and Martial celebrate it for the wine and figs 
that it produced. It is now renowned for producing the best mastic in the world. 

" Sir Paul Ricaut, in his ' Present State of the Greek Church,' tells us, that there 
is no place in the Turkish dominions where Christians enjoy more freedom in their 
religion and estates than in this island, to which they are entitled by an ancient ca- 
pitulation made with Sultan Muhammed. 

" Samos (ver. 15) was another island of the Archipelago, lying southeast of Chios, 
and about five miles from the Asiatic continent. It was famous among heathen 
writers for the worship of Juno; for one of the Sibyls called Sibylla Samiana; for 
Pherecydes, who foretold an earthquake that happened there, by drinking of the 
waters; and more especially for the birth of Pythagoras. It was formerly a free 
commonwealth; at present, the Turks have reduced it to a mean and depopulated 
condition; so that ever since the year 1676, no Turk has ventured to live on it, on 
account of its being frequented by pirates, who carry all whom they take into cap- 
tivity." 

" Trogyllium (ver. 15) is a promontory at the foot of Mount Mycale, opposite to, 
and five miles from Samos: there was also a town there of the same name, mentioned 
by Pliny, Lib. v. c. 29. p. 295." 

" Miletus, (ver. 15,) a sea-port town on the continent of Asia Minor, and in the 
province of Caria, memorable for being the birth-place of Thales, one of the seven 
wise men of Greece, and father of the Ionic philosophy ; of Anaximander, his scholar ; 
Timotheus, the musician ; and Anaximenes, the philosopher. It is called now, by 
the Turks, Melas ; and not far distant from it is the true Meander. (Whitby's Table 
and Well's Geog. quoted by Williams on Pearson, pp. 66, 67.) 

Tearing himself thus from the embraces of his Ephesian bre- 
thren, Paul sailed off to the southward, hurrying on to Jerusalem, 
in order to reach there, if possible, before the Pentecost. After 
leaving Miletus, the apostolic company made a straight course to 
Coos, and then rounding the great northwestern angle of Asia 
Minor, turned eastwardly to Rhodes, and passing probably through 
the strait, between that island and the continent, landed at Patara, 
a town on the coast of Lycia, which was the destination of their 
first vessel. They therefore at this place engaged a passage in a 
vessel bound to Tyre, and holding on southeastward, came next 
in sight of Cyprus, which they passed, leaving it on the left, and 



594 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

then steering straight for the Syrian coast, landed at Tyre, where 
their vessel was to unlade ; so that they were detained here for a 
whole week, which they passed in the company of some Christian 
brethren who constituted a church there. These Tyrian disciples 
hearing of Paul's plan to visit Jerusalem, and knowing the dan- 
gers to which he would there be exposed by the deadly hate of the 
Jews, were very urgent with him against his journey ; but he still 
resolutely held on his course, as soon as a passage could be pro- 
cured, and bade them farewell, with prayer on the shore, to which 
the brethren accompanied him with their women and children. 
Standing off from the shore, they then sailed on south, to Ptole- 
mais, where they spent a day with the Christians in that place, 
and then re-embarking, and passing round the promontory of Car- 
mel, reached Caesarea, where their sea-voyage terminated. Here 
they passed several days in the house of Philip the evangelist, one 
of the seven deacons, who had four daughters that were prophet- 
esses. While they were resting themselves in this truly religious 
family, from the fatigues of their long voyage, they were visited by 
Agabus, a prophet from Jerusalem, — the same who had formerly 
visited Antioch when Paul was there, and who had then foretold 
the coming famine, which threatened all the world. This remark- 
able man predicted to Paul the misfortunes which awaited him in 
Jerusalem. In the solemnly impressive dramatic action of the an- 
cient prophets, he took Paul's girdle, and binding his own hands 
with it, said — " Thus says the Holy Spirit, ' So shall the Jews at 
Jerusalem bind the man that owns this girdle, and shall deliver 
him to the Gentiles.' " On hearing this melancholy announce- 
ment, all the companions of Paul and the Christians of Caesarea, 
united in beseeching Paul to give up his purpose of visiting Jeru- 
salem. But he, resolute against all entreaty, declared himself ready 
not only to be bound, but to die in Jerusalem for the Lord Jesus. 
And when they found that he would not be persuaded, they all 
ceased to harass him with their supplications, and resigned him to 
Providence, saying — " The will of the Lord be done." They then 
all took carriages, and rode up to Jerusalem, accompanied by some 
brethren from Caesarea, and by Mnason, an old believer, formerly 
of Cyprus, but now of Jerusalem, who had engaged them as his 
guests in that city. 

" Coos, (ch. xxi. ver. 1,) an island in the Aegean or Icarian sea, near Mnydos and 
Cnidus, which had a city of the same name, from which Hippocrates, the celebrated 
physician, and Apelles, the famous painter, were called Coi. Here was a large tern- 



paul. 595 

pie of Aesculapius, and another of Juno. It abounded in rich wines, and is very 
often mentioned by the classic poets." (Whitby's Alphab. Table.) 

Witsius very absurdly defines the situation of this island by saying that it is "near 
Crete." — " Coos, quae maris Mediterranei insula est prope Crelam." It is in the 
Aegean sea properly, and not in the Mediterranean ; and can not be less than one 
hundred and twenty miles from Crete, much farther off from it than is Rhodes, — the 
next island in Paul's route, and there are many islands between Coos and Crete, so 
that the statement gives no just idea of the situation of the island. It would be as 
proper to say that Barbadoes is near Cuba, or the Isle of Man near France. 

" Rhodes, (ver. 1,) an island, supposed to have taken its name (and tGo> 'Po'<W) from 
the many roses which were known to grow there. It lies south of the province of 
Caria, and it is accounted next to Cyprus and Lesbos for its dignity among the Asiatic 
islands. It was remarkable among the ancients for the expertness of its inhabitants 
in navigation; for a college, in which the students were eminent for eloquence and 
mathematics; and for the clearness of its air, insomuch that there was not a day in 
which the sun did not shine upon it; and more especially celebrated for its prodigious 
statue of brass, consecrated especially to the sun, and called his Colossus. This 
statue was seventy cubits high, and every finger as large as an ordinary sized man, 
and as it stood astride over the mouth of the harbor, ships passed under its legs." 
(Whitby's Table and Wells's Geog. quoted by Williams on Pearson, pp. 67, 68.) 

LAST VISIT TO JERUSALEM. 

Paul was now received in Jerusalem by the brethren with great 
joy, and going, on the day after his arrival, to see James, now the 
principal apostle resident in the Holy city, communicated to him 
and all the elders a full account of all his various labors. Having 
heard his very interesting communications, they were moved with 
gratitude to God for this triumph of his grace ; but knowing as 
they did, with what rumors against Paul these events had been 
connected by common fame, they desired to arrange his introduc- 
tion to the temple in such a manner as would most effectually si- 
lence these prejudicial stories. The plan proposed by them was, 
that he should, in the company of four Jews of the Christian faith, 
who had a vow on them, go through with all the usual forms of 
purification prescribed under such circumstances for a Jew, on re- 
turning from the daily impurities to which he was exposed by 
a residence among the Gentiles, to a participation in the holy 
services of solemn worship in the temple. The apostles and elders, 
however, in recommending this course, declared to him, that they 
believed that the Gentiles ought not to be bound to the perform- 
ance of the Jewish rituals, but should be exempt from all restric- 
tions, except such as had formerly been decided on by the council 
of Jerusalem. Paul, always devout and exact in the observance of 
the institutions of his national religion, followed their advice ac- 
cordingly, and went on quietly and unpretendingly in the regular 
performance of the prescribed ceremonies, waiting for the termi- 
nation of the seven days of purification, when the offering should 
be made for himself, and one for each of his companions, after 



596 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

which, they were all to be admitted, of course, to the full honors 
of Mosaic purity, and the religious privileges of conforming Jews. 
But these ritual observances were not destined to save him from 
the calamities to which the hatred of his enemies had devoted him. 
Near the close of the seven days allotted by the Mosaic ritual for 
the purification of a regenerated Israelite, some of the Asian Jews, 
who had known Paul in his missionary journeys through their 
own country, and who had come to Jerusalem to attend the festi- 
val, seeing their old enemy in the midst of the temple, against 
whose worship they had understood him to have been preaching 
to the Gentiles, — instantly raised a great outcry, and fell upon him, 
dragging him along, and shouting to the multitude around — " Men 
of Israel ! help ! This is the man that everywhere teaches all men 
against the people, and the law, and this place ; and he has, fur- 
thermore, brought Greeks into the temple, and has polluted this 
holy place." It seems they had seen Trophimus, one of his Gen- 
tile companions from Ephesus, with him in the city, and imagined 
also that Paul had brought him into the temple, within the sanc- 
tuary, whose entrance was expressly forbidden to all Gentiles, who 
were never allowed to pass beyond the outermost court. The 
sanctuary or court of the Jews could not be crossed by an uncir- 
cumcised Gentile, and the transgression of the holy limit was 
punished with death. Within this holy court, the scene now de- 
scribed took place, and as the whole sanctuary was then crowded 
with Jews, who had come from all parts of the world to attend the 
festival in Jerusalem, the outcry raised against Paul immediately 
drew thronging thousands around him. Hearing the complaint 
that he was a renegade Jew, who, in other countries, had used his 
utmost endeavors to throw contempt on his own nation, and to 
bring their holy worship into disrepute, and yet had now the im- 
pudence to show himself in the sanctuary, which he had thus 
blasphemed, — and had, moreover, even profaned it by introducing 
into the sacred precincts one of those Gentiles for whose company 
he had forsaken the fellowship of Israel, — they all joined in the 
rush upon him, and dragged him out of the temple, the gates of 
which were immediately shut by the Levites on duty, lest in the 
riot that was expected to ensue, the consecrated pavement should 
be polluted with the blood of the renegade. Not only those in the 
temple, but also those in the city, were called out by the disturb- 
ance, and came running together to join in the mob against the 



paul. 597 

profaner of the sanctuary ; and Paul now seemed in a fair way to 
win the bloody crown of martyrdom. 

The great noise made by the swarming multitudes who were 
gathering around Paul, soon reached the ears of the Roman gar- 
rison in Castle Antonia, and the soldiers instantly hastened to tell 
the commanding officer, that " the whole city was in an uproar." 
The tribune, Claudius Lysias, probably thinking of a rebellion 
against the Romans, instantly ordered a detachment of several 
companies under arms, and hurried down with them, in a few mo- 
ments, to the scene of the riot. The mob meanwhile were dili- 
gently occupied in beating Paul ; but as soon as the military force 
made their way among the crowd, the rioters left off beating him, 
and fell back. The tribune coming near, and seeing Paul alone 
in the midst, who seemed to be the object and occasion of all the 
disturbance, without hesitation seized him, and putting him in 
chains, took him out of the throng. He then demanded what all 
this riot meant. To his inquiry, the whole mob replied with va- 
rious accounts ; some cried one thing, and some another ; and the 
tribune rinding it utterly impossible to learn from the rioters who 
he was or what he had done, ordered him to be taken up to the 
castle. Castle Antonia stood at the northwestern angle of the tem- 
ple, close by one of the great colonnades, in which the riot seems 
to have taken place. To this, Paul was now taken, and was borne 
by the surrounding soldiers, to keep off the multitude, who were 
raging for his blood, like hungry wolves after the prey snatched 
from their jaws, — and they all pressed after him, shouting — " kill 
him !" In this way Paul was carried up the stairs which led to 
the high entrance of the castle, which, of course, the soldiers would 
not allow the multitude to mount ; and when he had reached the 
top of the stairs, he was therefore perfectly protected from their 
violence, though perfectly well situated for speaking to them, so as 
to be distinctly seen and heard. As they were taking him up the 
stairs, he begged the attention of the tribune, saying — " May I 
speak to thee ?" The tribune hearing this, in some surprise asked 
— "Canst thou speak Greek? Art thou not that Egyptian that 
raised a sedition some time ago, and led away into the wilderness 
a band of four thousand cut-throats ?" This alarming revolt had 
been but lately put down with great trouble, and was therefore 
fresh in the mind of Lysias, who had been concerned in quelling 
it, along with the whole Roman force in Palestine, — and from some 
of the outcries of the mob, he now took up the notion that Paul 



598 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

was the very ringleader of that revolt, and had now just returned 
from his place of refuge to make new trouble, and had been de- 
tected by the multitude in the temple. Paul answered the foolish 
accusation, of the tribune, by saying — " I am a Jewish citizen of 
Tarsus, in Cilicia, which is no mean city ; and I beg of thee, to 
let me speak to the people." The tribune, quite glad to have his 
unpleasant suspicions removed, as an atonement for the unjust ac- 
cusation, immediately granted the permission as requested, and Paul 
therefore turned to the raging multitude, waving his hand in the 
usual gesture for requesting silence. The people, curious to hear 
his account of himself, listened accordingly, and he therefore up- 
lifted his voice in a respectful request for their attention to his plea 
in his own behalf. " Men ! Brethren ! and Fathers ! Hear ye my 
defence which I make to you !" 

Those words were spoken in the vernacular language of Pales- 
tine, the true Hebraistic dialect of Jerusalem, and the multitude 
were thereby immediately undeceived about his character, for they 
had been as much mistaken as the tribune was, though their mis- 
take was of a very opposite nature ; for they supposed him to be 
entirely Greek in his habits and language, if not in his origin ; 
and the vast concourse was therefore hushed in profound silence, 
to hear his address made in the true Jewish language. Before 
this strange audience, Paul then stood up boldly, to declare his 
character, his views, and his apostolic commission. On the top of 
the lofty rampart of Castle Antonia, — with the dark iron forms of 
the Roman soldiery around him, guarding the steep ascent against 
the raging mob, — and with the enormous mass of the congregated 
thousands of Jerusalem, and of the strangers who had come up to 
the festival, all straining their fierce eyes in wrath and hate upon 
him, as a convicted renegade, — one feeble, slender man, now stood, 
the object of the most painful attention to all, — yet, less moved 
with passion and anxiety than any one present. Thus stationed, 
he began, and gave to the curious multitude an interesting account 
of the incidents connected with that great change in his feelings 
and belief, which- was the occasion of the present difficulty. After 
giving them a complete statement of these particulars, he was nar- 
rating the circumstance of a revelation made to him in the temple, 
while in a devotional trance there, on his first return to Jerusalem, 
after his conversion. In repeating the solemn commission there 
confirmed to him by the voice of God, he repeated the crowning 
sentence, with which the Lord removed his doubts about engaging 



paul. 599 

in the work of preaching the gospel, when his hands were yet, as 
it were, red with the blood of the martyred faithful, — " And he 
said to me, l Go : for I will send thee far hence unto the Gen- 
tiles.' " But when the listening multitude heard this clear de- 
claration of his haying considered himself authorized to commu- 
nicate to the Gentiles those holy things which had been especially 
consigned by God to his peculiar people, — they took it as a clear 
confession of the charge of having desecrated and degraded his 
national religion, and all interrupted him with the ferocious cry — 
" Take him away from the earth ! for such a fellow does not de- 
serve to live." The tribune, finding that this discussion was not 
likely to answer any good purpose, instantly put a stop to it, by 
dragging him into the castle, and gave directions that he should 
be examined by scourging, that they might make him confess truly 
who he was, and what he had done to make the people cry out so 
against him. While the guard were binding him with thongs, be- 
fore they laid on the scourge, Paul spoke to the centurion, who was 
superintending the operation, and said in a sententiously inquiring 
way — " Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman citizen without 
legal condemnation ?" This question put a stop to all proceedings 
at once. The centurion immediately dropped the thongs, and ran 
to the tribune, saying — " Take heed what thou doest, for this man 
is a Roman citizen." The tribune then came to Paul, in much 
trepidation, and with great solemnity said — " Tell me truly, art 
thou a Roman citizen ?" Paul distinctly declared — " Yes." De- 
sirous to learn the mode in which the prisoner had obtained this 
most sacred and unimpeachable privilege, the tribune remarked of 
himself, that he had obtained this right by the payment of a large 
sum of money, — perhaps doubting whether a man of Paul's poor 
aspect could ever have been able to buy it ; to which Paul boldly 
replied — " But I was born free." This clear declaration satisfied 
the tribune that he had involved himself in a very serious diffi- 
culty, by committing this illegal violence on a person thus entitled 
to all the privileges of a subject of law. All the subordinate agents 
also were fully aware of the nature of the mistake, and all imme- 
diately let him alone. Lysias now kept Paul with great care in 
the castle, as a place of safety from his Jewish persecutors ; and 
the next day, in order to have a full investigation of his character 
and the charges against him, he took him before the Sanhedrim 
for examination. Paul there opened his defence in a very appro- 
priate and self- vindicating style. " Men ! Brethren ! and Fathers ! 
79 



600 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

I have heretofore lived before God with a good conscience." At 
these words, Ananias, the high priest, provoked by Paul's seeming 
assurance in thus vindicating himself, when under the accusation 
of the heads of the Jewish religion, commanded those that stood 
next to Paul to smite him on the mouth. Paul, indignant at the 
high-handed tyranny of this outrageous attack on him, answered 
in honest wrath — " God shall smite thee, thou whited wall ! For 
dost thou command me to be smitten contrary to the law, when 
thou sittest as a judge over me ?" The other bystanders, enraged 
at his boldness, asked him — "Revilest thou God's high priest?" 
To which Paul, not having known the fact that Ananias then held 
that office which he had so disgraced by his infamous conduct, re- 
plied—" I knew not, brethren, that he was the high priest ; for it 
is written, ' thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.' " 
Then, perceiving the mixed character of the council, he deter- 
mined to avail himself of the mutual hatred of the two great sects, 
for his defense, by making his own persecution a kind of party 
question ; and therefore called out to them — " I am a Pharisee, the 
son of a Pharisee. Of the hope of the resurrection of the dead, 
I am called in question." These words had the expected effect. 
Instantly, all the violent party feeling between these two sects 
broke out in full force, and the whole council was divided and 
confused, — the scribes, who belonged to the Pharisaic order, arising, 
and declaring — " We find no occasion of evil in this man. But 
if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against 
God." This last remark, of course, was throwing down the gaunt- 
let at the opposite sect ; for the Sadducees, denying absolutely the 
existence of either angel or spirit, could, of course, believe no part 
of Paul's story about his vision and spiritual summons. They all 
therefore broke out against the Pharisees, who being thus involved, 
took Paul's side very determinedly, and the party strife grew so 
hot that Paul was like to be torn in pieces between them. The 
tribune, seeing the pass to which matters had come, then ordered 
out the castle-guard, and took him by force, bringing him back to 
his former place of safety. 

" The reason why St. Paul chose to speak in the Hebrew tongue, may be accounted 
for thus. There were at this time two sorts of Jews, some called by Chrysostom oi 
PadeTs 'ESpaToi, 'profound Hebrews, who used no other language but the Hebrew, and 
would not admit, the Greek Bible into their assemblies, bat only the Hebrew, with 
the Jerusalem Targum and Paraphrase. The other sort spoke Greek, and used that 
translation of the scriptures ; these were called Hellenists. This was a cause of great 
dissension among these two parties, even after they had embraced Christianity, (Acts 
vi. 1.) Of this latter sort was St. Paul, because he always made use of the Greek 



PAUL. 601 

translation of the Bible in his writings, so that in this respect he might not be ac- 
ceptable to the other party. Those of them who were converted to Christianity, 
were much prejudiced against him, (Acts xxi. 21,) which is given as a reason for 
his concealing his name in his Epistle to the Hebrews. And as for those who were 
not converted, they could not so much as endure him : and this is the reason which 
Chrysostom gives, why he preached to the Hellenists only. Acts ix. 28. Therefore, 
that he might avert the great displeasure which the Jews had conceived against him, 
he accosted them in their favorite language, and by his compliance in this respect, 
they were so far pacified as to give him audience." (Hammond's Annot. quoted by 
Williams on Pearson, p. 70.) 

" Scourging was a method of examination used by Romans and other nations, to 
force such as were supposed guilty, to confess what they had done, what were their 
motives, and who were accessory to the fact. Thus Tacitus tells us of Herennius 
Gallus, that he received several stripes, that it might be known for what price, and 
with what confederates, he had betrayed the Roman army. It is to be observed, how- 
ever, that the Romans were punished in this wise, not by whips and scourges, but 
with rods only; and therefore it is that Cicero, (Orat. pro Rabirio,) speaking against 
Labienus, telis his audience that the Porcian law permitted a Roman to be whipped 
with rods, but he, like a good and merciful man, (speaking ironically,) had done it 
with scourges ; and still further, neither by whips nor rods could a citizen of Rome be 
punished, until he were first adjudged to lose his privilege, to be uncitizened, and 
to be declared an enemy to the commonwealth ; then he might be scourged or put to 
death. Cicero (Orat. in Ver.) says—' It is a foul fault for any praetor, &c, to bind 
a citizen of Rome; a piacular offense to scourge him; a kind of parricide to kill 
him: what shall I call the crucifying of such an onel' " (Williams's notes on Pear- 
son, pp. 70, 71.) 

" Ananias, the son of Nebedaeus, was high priest at the time that Helena, queen 
of Adiabene, supplied the Jews with corn from Egypt, (Jos. Ant. lib. xx. c. 5, § 2,) 
during the famine which took place in the fourth year of Claudius, mentioned in the 
eleventh chapter of the Acts. St. Paul, therefore, who took a journey to Jerusalem 
at that period, (Acts xv.) could not have been ignorant of the elevation of Ananias 
to that dignity. Soon after the holding of the first council, as it is called, at Jerusa- 
lem, Ananias was dispossessed of his office, in consequence of certain acts of vio- 
lence between the Samaritans and the Jews, and sent prisoner to Rome, (Jos. Ant. 
lib. xx. c. 6, § 2,) whence he was afterwards released and returned to Jerusalem. 
Now from that period he could not be called high priest, in the proper sense of the 
word, though Josephus (Ant. lib. xx. c. 9, § c. and Bell, Jud. lib. ii. c. 17, § 9) has 
sometimes given him the title of &px i£ P™s, taken in the more extensive meaning of a 
priest who had a seat and voice in the Sanhedrim ; (d^t^er?, in the plural number, is 
frequently used in the New Testament, when allusion is made to the Sanhedrim ;) 
and Jonathan, though we are not acquainted with the circumstances of his elevationj) 
had been raised, in the mean time, to the supreme dignity in the Jewish church. Be- 
tween the death of Jonathan, who was murdered (Jos. Ant. Jud. lib. xx. c. 8, § 5) by 
order of Felix, and the high priesthood of Ismael, who was invested with that office 
by Agrippa, (Jos. Ant. lib. xx. c. 8, § 3,) elapsed an interval in which this dignity 
continued vacant. Now it happened precisely in this interval, that St. Paul was ap- 
prehended at Jerusalem ; and, the Sanhedrim being destitute of a president, he under- 
took, of his own authority, the discharge of that office, which he executed with the 
greatest tyranny. (Jos. Ant. lib. xx. c. 9, § 2.) It is possible, therefore, that St. Paul, 
who had been only a few days at Jerusalem, might be ignorant that Ananias, who 
had been dispossessed of the priesthood, had taken upon himself a trust to which he 
was not entitled. He might therefore very naturally exclaim—' I wist not, brethren, 
that he was the high priest!' Admitting him, on the other hand, to have been ac- 
quainted with the fact, the expression must be considered qs an indirect reproof, and 
a tacit refusal to recognize usurped authority." (Michaelis, Vol. I. pp. 51, 56.) 

" The prediction of St. Paul, v. 3— 'God shall smite thee, thou whited wall,' was, 
according to Josephus, fulfilled in a short time. For when, in the government of 
Floras, his son Eleazar set himself at the head of a party of mutineers, who, having 
made themselves masters of the temple, would permit no sacrifices to be offered for 
the emperor; and being joined by a company of assassins, compelled persons of the 
best quality to fly for their safety and hide themselves in sinks and vaults ; — Ananias 
and his brother Hezekias, were both drawn out of one of these places, and murdered, 
(Jos. de Bell. lib. ii. c. 17, 18,) though Dr. Lightfoot will have it that he perished at 
the siege of Jerusalem !" (Whitby's Annot. quoted by Williams.) 



602 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

During that night, the soul of Paul was comforted by a hea- 
venly vision, in which the Lord exhorted him to maintain the 
same high spirit, — assuring him that as he had testified of him in 
Jerusalem, even so he should bear witness in Rome. His dangers 
in Jerusalem, however, were not yet over. The furious Jews, 
now cut off from all possibility of doing any violence to Paul, un- 
der the sanction of legal forms, determined to set all moderation 
aside, and forty of the most desperate bound themselves by a so- 
lemn oath, neither to eat nor drink till they had slain Paul. In 
the arrangement of the mode in which their abominable vow 
should be performed, it was settled between them and the high 
priest, that a request should be sent to the tribune to bring down 
Paul before the council once more, as if for the sake of putting 
some additional inquiries to him for their final and perfect satisfac- 
tion ; and then, that these desperadoes should station themselves 
where they could make a rush upon Paul, just as he was entering 
the council-hall, and kill him before the guard could bestir them- 
selves in his defense, or seize the murderers ; and even if some of 
them should be caught and punished, it need never be known that 
the high priest was accessory to the assassination. But while they 
were arranging this hopeful piece of wickedness, they did not ma- 
nage it so snugly as was necessary for the success of the plot ; for 
it somehow or other got to the ears of Paul's nephew, — a young 
man nowhere else mentioned in the New Testament, and of whose 
character and situation nothing whatever is known. He, hearing 
of the plot, came instantly to his uncle, who sent him to commu- 
nicate the tidings to the tribune. Lysias, on receiving this account 
of the utterly desperate character of the opposition to Paul, deter- 
mined not to risk his prisoner's life any longer in Jerusalem, even 
when guarded by the powerful defenses of Castle Antonia. He 
dismissed the young man with the strongest injunctions, to observe 
the most profound secrecy, as to the fact of his having made this 
communication to him; and immediately made preparations to 
send off Paul, that very night, to Caesarea, designing to have him 
left there with the governor of the province, as a prisoner of state, 
and thus to rid himself of all responsibility about this very diffi- 
cult and perilous business. He ordered two centurions to draw out 
a detachment, of such very remarkable strength, as shows the ex- 
cess of his fears for Paul. Two hundred heavy-armed soldiers, 
seventy horsemen, and two hundred lancers, were detached as a 
guard for Paul, and were all mounted for speed, to take him be- 



PAUL. 603 

yond the reach of the Jerusalem desperadoes that very night. He 
gave to that portion of the detachment that was designed to go all 
the way to Caesarea, a letter to be delivered to Felix, the governor, 
giving a fair and faithful account of all the circumstances con- 
nected with Paul's imprisonment and perils in Jerusalem. 

RETURN TO CAESAREA. 

The strong mounted detachment, numbering four hundred and 
seventy full-armed Roman warriors, accordingly set out that night 
at nine o'clock, and moving silently off from the castle, which 
stood near one of the western gates of the city, passed out of Jeru- 
salem unnoticed in the darkness, and galloped away to the north- 
west. After forty miles of hard riding, they reached Antipatris 
before day, and as all danger of pursuit from the Jerusalem assas- 
sins was out of the question there, the mounted infantry and the 
lancers returned to Jerusalem, leaving Paul, however, the very re- 
spectable military attendence of the seventy horse-guards. With 
these, he journeyed to Caesarea, only about twenty-five miles off, 
where he was presented by the commander of the detachment to 
Felix, the Roman governor, who always resided in Caesarea, the 
capital of the province. The governor, on reading the letter, and 
learning that Paul was of Cilicia, deferred giving his case a full 
hearing, until his accusers had also come ; and committed him for 
safe keeping, in the interval, to an apartment in the great palace, 
built by Herod the Great, the royal founder of Caesarea. 

After a delay of five days, the high priest and the elders came 
down to Caesarea, to prosecute their charges against Paul before 
the governor. They brought with them, as their advocate, a, 
speech-maker, named Tertullus, whose name shows him to have 
been of Roman connexions or education, and who, on account of 
his acquaintance with the Latin forms of oratory and law, was no 
doubt selected by Ananias and his coadjutors, as a person better 
qualified than themselves to maintain their cause with effect, before 
the governor. Tertullus accordingly opened the case, and when 
Paul had been confronted with his accusers, began with a very te- 
dious string of formal compliments to Felix, and then set forth a 
complaint against Paul in very bitter and abusive terms, stating 
his offense to be, the attempt to profane the temple, for which the 
Jews would have convicted and punished him, if Lysias had not 
violently hindered, and put them to the trouble of bringing the 
whole business before the governor, though a matter exclusively 



604 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

concerning their religious law. To all his assertions the Jews tes- 
tified. 

This presentation of the accusation being made, Paul was then 
called on for his defense, which he thereupon delivered in a tone 
highly respectful to the governor, and maintained that he had been 
guilty of none of the troublesome and riotous conduct of which 
he was accused ; but quietly, without any effort to make a commo- 
tion among the people anywhere, had come into the city on a 
visit, after many years' absence, to bring alms and offerings ; and 
that when he was seized by the Asian Jews in the temple, he was 
going blamelessly through the established ceremonies of purifica- 
tion. He complained, also, that his original accusers, the Asian 
Jews, were not confronted with him, and challenged his present 
prosecutors to bring any evidence against him. Felix> after this 
hearing of the case, on the pretence of needing Lysias as a witness 
on the facts, deferred his decision, and left both accusers and ac- 
cused to the enjoyment of the delays and " glorious uncertainties 
of the law." Meanwhile he committed Paul to the charge of a 
centurion, with directions that he should be allowed all reasonable 
liberty, and should not be in any particular restricted from the 
freest intercourse with his friends. The imprisonment of Paul at 
Caesarea was merely nominal ; and he must have passed his time 
both pleasantly and profitably, with the members of the church at 
Caesarea, with whom he had formerly been acquainted, especially 
with Philip and his family. Besides these, he was also favored 
with the company of several of his assistants, who had been the 
companions of his toils in Europe and Asia ; and through them 
he could hold the freest correspondence with any of the numerous 
churches of his apostolic charge throughout the world. He resided 
here for two whole years, at least, of Felix's administration ; and 
during that time, was more than once sent for by the governor, to 
hold conversations with him on the great objects of his life, in 
some of which he expressed himself so forcibly on righteousness, 
temperance, and judgment to come, that the wicked governor, — at 
that moment sitting in the presence of the apostle with an adul- 
terous paramour, — trembled at the view presented by Paul of the 
consequences of those sins for which Felix was so infamous. But 
his repentant tremors soon passed off, and he merely dismissed the 
apostle with a vague promise, that at some more convenient season 
he would send for him. He did, indeed, often send for him after 
this ; but the motive of these renewals of intercourse seems to 



PAUL. 605 

have been of the basest order, for it is stated by the sacred histo- 
rian, that his real object was to induce Paul to offer him a bribe, 
which he supposed could be easily raised by the contributions of 
his devoted friends. But the hope was vain. It was no part 
of Paul's plan of action to hasten the decision of his movements 
by such means, and the consequence was, that Felix found so little 
occasion to befriend him, that when he went out of the office 
which he had uniformly disgraced by tyranny, rapine, and mur- 
der, he thought it, on the whole, worth while to gratify the late 
subjects of his hateful sway by leaving Paul still a prisoner. 

" This Drusilla was the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa. (Jos. lib. xix. c. 
9, in.) Josephus gives the following account of her marriage with Felix : — ' Agrippa, 
having received this present from Caesar, (viz. Claudius,) gave his sister Drusilla in 
marriage to Azizus, king of the Emesenes, when he had consented to be circum- 
cised. For Epiphanes, the son of king Antiochus, had broken the contract with her, 
by refusing to embrace the Jewish customs, although he had promised her father he 
would. But this marriage of Drusilla with Azizus was dissolved in a short time, 
after this manner. When Felix was procurator of Judaea, having had a sight of her, 
he was mightily taken with her; and, indeed, she was the most beautiful of her sex. 
He therefore sent to her Simon, a Jew of Cyprus, who was one of his friends, and 
pretended to magic, by whom he persuaded her to leave her husband, and marry him ; 
promising to make her perfectly happy, if she did not disdain him. It was far from 
being a sufficient reason ; but to avoid the envy of her sister Bernice, who was con- 
tinually doing her ill offices, because of her beauty, she was induced to transgress 
the laws of her country, and marry Felix.' " (Lardner's Credibility, 4to. Vol. I. pp. 
16, 17, edit. London, 1815, quoted by Williams on Pearson, p. 78.) 

HEARING BEFORE FESTUS. 

The successor of Felix in the government of Palestine, was 
Porcius Festus, a man whose administration is by no means char- 
acterized in the history of those times by a reputation for justice 
or prudence ; yet, in the case of Paul, his conduct seems to have 
been much more accordant with right and reason than was that of 
the truly infamous Felix. Visiting the religious capital of the 
Jews soon after his first entrance into the province, he was there 
earnestly petitioned by the ever-spiteful foes of Paul, to cause this 
prisoner to be brought up to Jerusalem for trial, intending when 
Paul should enter the city, to execute their old plan of assassina- 
tion, which had been formerly frustrated by the benevolent pru- 
dence and energy of Claudius Lysias. But Festus, perhaps having 
received some notification of this plot from the friends of Paul, 
utterly refused to bring the prisoner to Jerusalem, but required the 
presence of the accusers in the proper seat of the supreme provin- 
cial administration of justice at Caesarea. After a ten days' stay 
in Jerusalem, he returned to the civil capital, and with a com- 
mendable activity in his judicial proceedings, on the very next 



606 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

day after his arrival in Caesarea, summoned Paul and his accusers 
before him. The Jews, of course, told their old story, and brought 
out against Paul many grievous complaints, which they could not 
prove. His only reply to all this accusation without testimony 
was — " Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the tem- 
ple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended in any particular." 
But Festus having been in some way influenced to favor the de- 
signs of the Jews, urged Paul to go up to Jerusalem, there to be 
tried by the supreme religious court of his own nation. Paul re- 
plied by a bold and distinct assertion of his rights as a Roman 
citizen, before the tribunal of his liege lord and sovran : — " I stand 
before Caesar's judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged. To 
the Jews I have done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. If 
I am guilty of any thing that deserves death, I refuse not to die ; 
but if I have done none of these things of which they accuse me, 
no man can deliver me into their hands. I appeal to Caesar." 
This solemn concluding formula put him at once far beyond the 
reach of all inferior tyranny ; henceforth no governor in the world 
could direct the fate of the appellant Roman citizen, throwing be- 
fore himself the adamantine aegis of Roman law. Festus him- 
self, though evidently displeased at this turn of events, could not 
resist the course of law ; but after a conference with his council, 
replied to Paul — " Dost thou appeal to Caesar? To Caesar shalt 
thou go." 

hearing before agrippa. 

While Paul was still detained at Caesarea, after this final refer- 
ence of his case to the highest judicial authority in the world, 
Festus was visited at Caesarea by Agrippa II., king of Iturea, Tra- 
chonitis, Abilene, and other northern regions of Palestine, the son 
of that Herod Agrippa whose character and actions were connected 
with the incidents of Peter's life. He, passing through Judea 
with his sister Bernice, stopped at Caesarea, to pay their compli- 
ments to the new Roman governor. During their stay there, Fes- 
tus, with a view to find rational entertainment for his royal guests, 
bethought himself of Paul's case, as one that would be likely to 
interest them, connected as the prisoner's fate seemed to be, with 
the religious and legal matters of that peculiar people to whom 
Agrippa himself belonged, and in the minutiae of whose law and 
theology he had been so well instructed, that his opinion on the 
case would be well worth having, to one as little acquainted with 



PAUL. 607 

these matters as the heathen governor himself was. Festns there- 
fore gave a very full account of the whole case to Agrippa, in 
terms that sufficiently well exhibited the perplexities in which he 
was involved, and in expressions which are strikingly and almost 
amusingly characteristic, — complaining as he does of the very ab- 
struse and perplexing nature of the accusations brought by the 
Jews, as being " certain questions of their own religion, and of 
one Jesus, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Agrippa was so much 
interested in the case that he expressed a wish to hear the man in 
person; and Festus accordingly arranged that he should the next 
day be gratified with the hearing. 

" ' King Agrippa and Bemice.' Acts xxv. 13. This Agrippa was the son of Herod 
Agrippa; St. Luke calls him king, which Josephus also does very often. (Ant. lib. 
xx. c. viii. § 6, et passim.) But St. Luke does not suppose him to be king of Judea, 
for all the judicial proceedings of that country relating to St. Paul, are transacted 
before Felix, and Festus his successor; besides he says, that 'Agrippa came to Caesa- 
rea to salute Festus,' to compliment him on his arrival, &c. ver. 1. When his father 
died, Claudius would have immediately put him in possession of his father's domin- 
ions, but he was advised not to do so, on account of the son's youth, then only seven- 
teen ; the emperor, therefore, ' appointed Cuspius Fadus praefect of Judea and the 
whole kingdom, (Jos. Ant. lib. xix. c. 9, ad fin.) who was succeeded by Tiberius, Al- 
exander, Cumanus, Felix, and Festus, though these did not possess the province in 
the same extent that Fadus did.' (Ant. xx. Bell. lib. ii.) 

" Agrippa had, notwithstanding, at this time, considerable territories. ' Herod, 
brother of king Agrippa the Great, died in the eighth year of the reign of Claudius. 
Claudius then gave his government to the young Agrippa.' (Jos. Ant. xx. p. 887.) 
This is the Agrippa mentioned in this twenty-fifth chapter. ' The twelfth year of 
his reign being completed, Claudius gave to Agrippa the letrarchy of Philip and Ba- 
tanea, adding also Trachonitis with Abila. This had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias. 
But he took away from him Chalcis, after he had governed it four years.' (Jos. Ant. 
xx. p. 890, v. 25, &c.) ' After this, he sent Felix, the brother of Pallas, to be pro- 
curator of Judea, Galilee, Samaria, and Peraea ; and promoted Agrippa from Chal- 
cis to a greater kingdom, giving him the tetrarchy which had been Philip's. (This 
is Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Gaulonitis ;) and he added, moreover, the kingdom 
of Lysanias, and the province that had been Varus's.' (Jos. de Bell. lib. ii. c. 12, 
fin.) ■ Nero, in the first year of his reign, gave Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, 
ordering Tiberias and Tarichaea to be subject to him. He gave him also Julias, a 
city of Peraea, and fourteen towns in the neighborhood of it.' (Ant. xx. c. 7, § 4.) 
St. Luke is therefore fully justified in styling this Agrippa king at this time." (Lard- 
ner's Credibility, 4to. Vol. I. pp. 17, 18, quoted by Williams on Pearson, pp. 81, 82.) 

On the next day, preparations were made for this audience, with 
a solemnity of display most honorable to the subject of it. The 
great hall of the palace was arrayed in grand order for the occa- 
sion, and, in due time, king Agrippa, with his royal sister, and the 
Roman governor, entered it with great pomp, followed by a train 
composed of all the great military and civil dignitaries of the vice- 
imperial court of Palestine. Before all this stately array, the apos- 
tolic prisoner was now set, and a solemn annunciation was made 
by Festus, of the circumstances of the prisoner's previous accusa- 
tion, trial, and appeal ; all which were now summarily recapitulated 
in public, for the sake of form, although they had before been com- 

80 



608 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

municated in private to Agrippa. The king, as the highest au- 
thority present, having graciously invited Paul to speak for himself, 
the apostle stretched forth his hand and began, in that respectful 
style of elaborately elegant compliment, which characterizes the 
exordiums of so many of his addresses to the great. After having, 
with most admirable skill, conciliated the attention and kind regard 
of the king, by expressing his happiness in being called to speak 
in his own defense before one so learned in Hebrew law, he went 
on ; and in a speech which is well known for its noble eloquence, 
so resplendent, even through the disguise of a quaint translation, 
presented not merely his own case, but the claims of that revela- 
tion, for proclaiming which he was now a prisoner. So admirably 
did he conduct his whole plea, both for himself and the cause of 
Christ, that in spite of the sneer of Festus, Agrippa paid him the 
very highest compliment in his power, and pronounced him to be 
utterly guiltless of the charges. No part of this plea, and its at- 
tendent discussions, needs to be recapitulated ; but a single charac- 
teristic of Paul, which is most strikingly evinced, deserves espe- 
cial notice. This is his profound regard for all the established 
forms of polite address. He is not satisfied with a mere respectful 
behavior towards his judges, but even distinguishes himself by a 
minute observance of all the customary phrases of politeness; nor 
does he suffer his courtly manner to be disturbed, even by the ab- 
rupt remark of Festus, accusing him of frenzy. In his reply, he 
styles his accuser c: Most noble •" and } r et every reader of Jewish 
history knows, and Paul knew, that this Festus, to whom he gave 
this honorable title, was one of the very wicked men of those 
wicked times. The instance shows, then, that those who, from 
religious scruples, refuse to give the titles of established respect to 
those who are elevated in station, and reject all forms of genteel 
address, on the same ground, have certainly constructed their sys- 
tem of practical religion on a model wholly different from that by 
which the apostle's demeanor was guided ; and the whole impres- 
sion made- on a common reader by Luke's clear statement of Paul's 
behavior before the most dignified and splendid audience that he 
ever addressed, must be, that he was complete in all the forms and 
observances of polite intercourse : and he must be considered, both 
according to the high standard of his refined and dignified hearers, 
and also by the universal standard of the refined of all ages, — not 
only a finished, eloquent orator, but a person of polished manners, 






PAUL. 609 
delicate tact, ready compliment, and graceful, courtly address : in 

Short, A PERFECT GENTLEMAN. 

VOYAGE TO ROME. 

As Paul, however, had previously appealed to Caesar, his case 
was already removed from any inferior jurisdiction, and his hear- 
ing before Agrippa was intended only to gratify the king himself, 
and to cause the particulars of his complicated case to be more 
fully drawn out before his royal hearer, who was so accomplished 
in Hebrew law, that his opinion was very naturally desired by 
Festus ; for as the governor himself confessed, the technicalities 
and abstruse points involved in the charge, were altogether beyond 
the comprehension of a Roman judge, with a mere heathen educa- 
tion. The object, therefore, of obtaining a full statement of par- 
ticulars, to be presented to his most august majesty, the emperor, 
being completely accomplished by this hearing of Paul before 
Agrippa, — there was nothing now to delay the reference of the 
case to Nero ; and Paul was therefore consigned, along with other 
prisoners of state, to the care of a Roman officer, Julius, a centu- 
rion of the Augustan cohort. Taking passage at Caesarea, in an 
Adramyttian vessel, Julius sailed with his important charge from 
the shores of Palestine, late in the year 60. Following the usual 
cautious course of all ancient navigators, — along the shores, and 
from island to island, venturing across the open sea only with the 
fairest winds — the vessel which bore the apostle on his first voy- 
age to Italy, coasted along by Syria and Asia Minor. Of those 
Christian associates who accompanied Paul, none are known ex- 
cept Timothy, Luke, his graphically accurate historian, and Aris- 
tarchus of Thessalonica, the apostle's long known companion in 
travel. These, of course, were a source of great enjoyment to 
Paul on this tedious voyage, surrounded, as he was, otherwise, by 
strangers and heathen, by most of whom he must have been re- 
garded in the light of a mere criminal, held in bonds for trial. He 
was, however, very fortunate in the character of the centurion to 
whose keeping he was intrusted, as is shown in more than one in- 
cident related by Luke. After one day's sail, the vessel touching 
at Sidon, Julius here politely gave Paul permission to visit his 
Christian friends in that place, — thus conferring a great favor, both 
on the apostle and on the church of Sidon. Leaving this place, 
their course was next along the coast of Syria, and then eastward, 
along the southern shore of Asia Minor, keeping in the Cilician 



610 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

strait, between that province and the great island of Cyprus, on 
account of the violence of the south westers. Coasting along by 
Pamphylia and Lycia, they next touched at Myra, a city in the 
latter province, where they were obliged to take passage in another 
vessel, bound from Alexandria to Italy. In this vessel, they also 
kept close to the coast, their course being still retarded by head 
winds, until they reached Cnidus, the farthest southeastern point 
of Asia Minor, and thence stretched across the Carpathian sea, to 
Crete, approaching it first at Cape Salmone, the most eastern point 
at the island, and then passing on to a place called "the Fair 
Haven," near Lasea, probably one of the hundred cities of Crete, 
but mentioned in no other ancient writer. At this place, Paul, 
whose experience in former voyages was already considerable, 
having been twice shipwrecked, had sagacity enough to see that 
any further navigation that season would be dangerous ; for it was 
now the beginning of October, and the most dreadful tempests 
might be reasonably expected on the wintry sea, before they could 
reach the Italian coast. He warned the centurion, accordingly, of 
the peril to which all their lives were exposed ; but the owner and 
commander of the vessel, anxious to find a better place for win- 
tering than this, persuaded Julius to risk the passage to the south 
side of the island, when they might find, in the port of Phoenix, 
a more convenient winter harbor. So, after the south wind had 
nearly died away, they attempted to take advantage of this ap- 
parent lull, and work their way, close to the shore, along the south 
side of Crete ; but presently they were caught by a tremendous 
Levanter, which carried them with great velocity away to the 
west, to the island of Clauda, which lies south of the west end of 
Crete. Here the danger of the ship's breaking in pieces was so 
great, that having with much ado overhauled their boat, they un- 
dergirded the ship with cables, to keep it together, — a measure not 
unknown in modern navigation. Finding that they were in much 
danger of grounding among the quicksands on the coast of the 
island, they were glad to stand out to sea ; and taking in all sail, 
scudded under bare poles for fourteen days, during a great part of 
which time they saw neither sun, moon, nor stars, the whole sky 
being constantly overcast with clouds, so that they knew nothing 
of their position. The wind, of course, carried them directly west, 
over what was then called the sea of Adria, — not what is now 
called the Adriatic gulf, but that part of the Mediterranean which 
lies between Greece, Italy, and Africa. In their desperation, the 



PAUL. 611 

passengers threw over their own baggage, to lighten the ship ; and 
they began to lose all hope of being saved from shipwreck. Paul, 
however, encouraged them by the narration of a dream, in which 
God had revealed to him that every one of them should escape ; 
and they still kept their hopes alive to the fourteenth night, when 
the sailors, thinking that the long western course must have 
brought them near Sicily, or the mainland of Italy which lay not 
far out of this direction, began to heave the lead, that they might 
avoid the shore ; and at the first sounding, found but twenty fa- 
thoms, and at the next fifteen. Of course, the peril of grounding 
was imminent, and they therefore cast anchor, and waited for day. 
Knowing that they were now near some shore, the sailors deter- 
mined to provide for their own safety, and accordingly undertook 
to let down the boat to make their escape, and leave the passen- 
gers to provide for themselves. But Paul represented to the cen- 
turion the certainty of their destruction, if the ship should be left 
without any seamen to manage it ; and the soldiers of the prison- 
ers' guard, determined not to be thus deserted, though they should 
sink all together, cut off the ropes by which the boat was held, 
and let it fall off. All being thus inevitably committed to one 
doom, Paul exhorted them to take food, and thus strengthen them- 
selves for the effort to reach the shore. They did so accordingly, 
and then, as a last resort, flung out the wheat with which the ship 
was loaded, and at day-break, when land appeared, seeing a small 
creek, they made an effort to run the ship into it, weighing anchor 
and hoisting the mainsail; but knowing nothing of the ground, 
soon struck, and the overstrained ship was immediately broken by 
the waves, the bows being fast in the sand-bank, while the stern 
was heaved by every surge. The soldiers, thinking first of their 
weighty charge, for whose escape they were to answer with their 
lives, advised to kill them all, lest they should swim ashore. But 
the more humane centurion forbade it, and gave directions that 
every man should provide for his own safety. They did so ; and 
those that could not swim, clinging to the fragments of the wreck, 
the whole two hundred and seventy-six who were in the vessel got 
safe to land. 

" { When sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was already past? ver. 9. 
There is no question but that this is the great fast of expiation, Lev. xvi. 29, the de- 
scription of which we have in Isa. lviii. under the name of a sabbath, ver. 13. The 
precise time of this sabbatic fast is on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tizri, 
which falls on the same time very nearly with our September, the first day of Tizri 
on the seventh of that, and so the 10th of Tizri on the 1.6th of September, that is, 
thirteen days before our Michaelmas. This being premised, the apostle's reasoning 



612 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

becomes clear; for it is precisely the same as though he should have said, because it 
teas past the twentieth (the day Scaliger sets for the solemnization of the fast) of Sep- 
tember ; it being observed by all sailors, that for some weeks before and after Michael- 
mas, there are on the sea sudden and frequent storms, (probably the equinoctial,) 
which have in modern times received the name of Michaelmas flaws, and must, of 
course, make sailing dangerous. Hesiod himself tells us, that at the going down of 
Pleiades, which was at the end of autumn, navigation was hazardous." (Williams.) 
11 ' Undergirding the ship,' ver. 17. We learn from various passages in the Greek 
and Roman writers, that the ancients had recourse to this expedient, in order to save 
the ship from imminent danger; and this method has been used in modern times. 
The process of undergirding a ship is thus performed : — a stout cable is slipped under 
the vessel at the prow, which can be conducted to any part of the ship's keel, and 
then fasten the two ends on the deck, to keep the planks from starting. An instance 
of this kind is mentioned in ' Lord Anson's Voyage round the World.' Speaking 
of a Spanish man-of-war in a storm, the writer says — ' They were obliged to throw 
overboard all their upper-deck guns, and take six turns of the cable round the ship, to 
prevent her opening' (p. 2-4. 4to. edit.) Bp. Pearce and Dr. Clarke, on Acts xxvii. 
17. Two instances of undergirding the ship are noticed in the ' Chevalier de John- 
stone's Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745 — 6,' London 1822, 8vo. pp. 421, 454." (Wil- 
liams's notes on Pearson, p. 85.) 

They now found that they had struck on the island of Melita, 
(now Malta.) which lies just south of Sicily, in the direct track in 
which the eastern gale must have blown them. The uncivilized 
inhabitants of this desolate spot received the shipwrecked voyagers 
with the kindest attention, and very considerately kindled a lire, 
to warm and dry them, after their long soaking in cold water. 
The dripping apostle took hold with the rest to make the fire blaze 
up, and gathered a bundle of dry sticks for the purpose ; but with 
them he unconsciously gathered a viper, which was sheltering it- 
self among them from the cold, and roused by the heat of the fire, 
now crept out upon his hand. He, of course, as any other man 
would, gave a jerk, and shook it off, as soon as he saw it, — a very 
natural occurrence ; but the superstitious barbarians thought this 
a perfect miracle, as they had before foolishly considered it a token 
of divine wrath ; and having looked on him as an object of hor- 
ror, and a wicked criminal, they now, with equal sense, adored 
him as a God. 

Another incident of more truly miraculous character, occurred 
to Paul soon after, in the part of the island on which they were 
wrecked, which had the effect of gaining him a much more solid 
fame. The father of Publius, the Roman officer who governed 
the island, as the deputy of the praetor of Sicily, was at that time 
very sick of the dysentery ; and Paul going to see him, laid his 
hands on him and prayed, — thus effecting a complete recovery. 
This being known, other diseased persons were presented as the 
subjects of Paul's miraculous powers, and the same cures following 
his words, he with his associates soon became the objects of a far 
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from the viper. The reverence, too, was extended beyond mere 
empty honor. The shipwrecked apostolic company having lost all 
their baggage and provisions, were abundantly provided with every 
thing that they needed, by the grateful contributions of the islanders ; 
and when, after a stay of three months, Paul and his companions 
departed, they were loaded with things necessary for the voyage. 

Sailing, on the return of spring, in another Alexandrine vessel, 
of the same very common name borne by that in which they were 
shipwrecked, they came next to Syracuse, on the east side of the 
island of Sicily, and after a stay of three days, turned through the 
Sicilian strait to Rhegium, on the mainland, directly opposite the 
island. There Paul first saw the soil of Italy, but did not leave 
the vessel for his land journey, till they came, with a fresh south 
wind, to Puteoli, a port in the bay of Naples. Here they found 
Christians, who invited them to rest among them for a week ; after 
which they journeyed along the coast, on the noble road of Poz- 
zuoli and Baiae, for about a hundred miles, to Appius's Forum, 
a village about eighteen miles from Rome. At this place, they 
were met by a number of brethren from the church of Rome ; and 
having journeyed along the Appian way, to the Three Taverns,— 
a little stopping-place, a few miles from the city, — they were re- 
ceived by still another deputation of Roman Christians, come out 
to greet the great apostle, whose name had long been known among 
them, and whose counsels and revelations they had already en- 
joyed by his writings. This noble testimony of the esteem in 
which they held him, was a most joyful assurance to Paul, that, 
even on this foreign shore, a stranger and a prisoner, he had many 
near and dear friends ; and his noble spirit, before probably de- 
pressed and melancholy, in the dark prospect of his approach to 
the awful seat of that remorseless imperial power that was to de- 
cide his doom, now rose to feelings of exultation and gratitude. 
Entering the vast imperial city, the prisoners were remanded by 
the centurion to the custody of Burrhus, the noble and influential 
praefect of the praetorian guard, who was, ex-officio^ the keeper of 
all prisoners of state, brought from the provinces to Rome. Bur- 
rhus, however, was as kind and accommodating to Paul as Julius 
had been, and allowed him to live by himself in a private house, 
with only a soldier as an attendent guard. 

After three days, Paul invited to his lodgings the chief men of 
the Jewish faith, in Rome, and made known to them the circum- 
stances under which he had been sent thither, and his present re- 
81 



614 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

lations to the heads of their religion in Jerusalem. In reply, they 
merely stated that they had received no formal communications 
respecting him from Jerusalem, nor had those of their brethren 
who had arrived from Judea spoken ill of him. They expressed 
also a great desire to hear from him the peculiar doctrine, for en- 
tertaining which he had been thus denounced, of which they pro- 
fessed to know nothing, but that there was a universal prejudice 
against it. A day was accordingly appointed for a full conference 
on these very important subjects, — and at the set time, Paul, with 
no small willingness, discoursed at great length on his views of 
the accomplishment of all the ancient prophecies respecting the 
Messiah, in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. His hearers 
were very much divided in opinion about these points, after his 
discourse was over, — some believing, and some disbelieving. 
Leaving them to meditate on what he had said, Paul dismissed 
them with a warning quotation from Isaiah against their preju- 
dices, and sternly reminded them, that though they did reject the 
truth, the waiting Gentiles were prepared to embrace it, and should 
receive the word of God immediately. They then left him, and 
made his words a subject of much discussion among themselves ; 
but the results are unrecorded. Paul having hired a house in 
Rome, made that city the scene of his active labors for two whole 
years, receiving all that called to inquire into religious truth, and 
proclaiming the doctrines of Christianity with the most unhesi- 
tating boldness and freedom ; and no man in Rome could molest 
him in making known his belief to as many as chose to hear him ; 
for it was not till many years after that the Christians were de- 
nounced and persecuted by Nero. 

HIS EPISTLES WRITTEN FROM ROME. 

With these facts the noble narrative of Luke ceases entirely, 
and henceforth no means are left of ascertaining the events of 
Paul's life, except in those incidental allusions which his subse- 
quent writings make to his circumstances. Those epistles which 
are certainly known and universally agreed to have been written 
from Rome during this imprisonment, are those to the Philippians, 
the Ephesians, the Colossians, and to Philemon. There are pas- 
sages in all these which imply that he was then near the close of 
his imprisonment, for he speaks with great confidence of being 
able to visit them shortly, and very particularly requests prepara- 
tion to be made for his accommodation on his arrival. 



PAUL. 615 

There is good reason to think that the epistles to the Ephesians, 
to the Colossians, and to Philemon, were written about the same 
time, and were sent together. This appears from the fact, that 
Tychicus is spoken of, in both the two former, as sent by the apos- 
tle to make known to them all his circumstances more fully, and 
is also implied as the bearer of both, while Onesimus, the bearer 
of the latter, is also mentioned in the epistle to the Colossians as 
accompanying Tychicus. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 

The most important question which has been raised concerning 
this epistle, regards the point, whether it was truly directed and sent 
by Paul to the church in Ephesus, as the common reading distinctly 
specifies. Many eminent modern critics have maintained that it was 
originally sent to the church in Laodicea, and that the word Ephe- 
sus, in the direction and in the first verse, is a change made in later 
times by those who felt interested to claim for this city the honor of 
an apostolic epistle. Others incline to the opinion, that it was di- 
rected to no particular church, but was sent as a circular to several 
churches in Asia Minor, among which were those of Ephesus and 
Laodicea, and that several copies were sent at the same time, each 
copy being differently directed. They suppose that when the epis- 
tles of Paul were first collected, that copy which was sent to Ephe- 
sus was the one adopted for this, and that the original manuscript 
being soon lost, all written trace of its original general direction dis- 
appeared also. 

The prominent reason for this remarkable supposition, unsupport- 
ed as it is by the authority of any ancient manuscript, is that Paul 
writes apparently with no local reference whatever to the circum- 
stances of the Ephesians, among whom he had lived for three years, 
although his other epistles to places which he had visited are so full 
of personal and local matters ; and that he speaks, on the contrary, 
as though he knew little of them, except by hearsay. A reference 
to the particular details of the reasoning by which this opinion is 
supported, would altogether transcend the proper limits of this work ; 
since even a summary of them fills a great many pages of those cri- 
tical and exegetical works, to which these discussions properly be- 
long ; and all which can be stated here is the general result, that a 
great weight of authority favors the view that this was probably a 
circular epistle ; but the whole argument in favor of either notion, 
rests on so slight a foundation, that it is not worth while to disturb 
the common impression for it. 

The epistle certainly does not seem to dwell on any local difficul- 
ties, but enlarges eloquently upon general topics, showing the holy 
watchfulness of the apostle over the faith of his readers. He appears, 
nevertheless, to emphasize with remarkable force the doctrines that 



616 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Christ alone was the source and means of salvation, "the chief cor- 
ner-stone," and that in him all are united, both Jews and Gentiles, in 
one holy temple. There is something in many such passages, with 
which the epistle abounds, that seems peculiarly well fitted to the cir- 
cumstances of mixed communities, made up of Jews and Gentiles, 
and as if the apostle wished to prevent the former from creating any 
distinctions in the church, in their own favor. Many passages in this 
epistle, also, are very pointedly opposed to those heresies, which about 
that period were beginning to rise up in those regions, and were af- 
terwards famous under the name of the Gnosis, — the first distinct 
sect that is known to have perverted the purity of the Christian truth. 
Paul here aims with remarkable energy to prove that salvation was 
to be attributed to Christ alone, and not to the intervention of any 
other superior beings, by whatever names they are called, whether 
principalities, or powers, or might, or dominion, both in this world 
and the world to come, — in heavenly places as well as earthly. 
The apostle, also, is very full in the moral and practical part, — urging 
with great particularity, the observance of those virtues which are 
the essentials of the Christian character, and specifying to each par- 
ticular age, sex, rank, and condition, its own peculiar duties. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 

In the first verse of the second chapter, the apostle expresses a pe- 
culiar anxiety for the spiritual safety of those Christians who have 
not seen his face in the flesh, among whom he appears to number 
the Colossians and Laodiceans. It seems quite evident that he had 
never been at Colosse ; for though he traversed Phrygia, on two 
several occasions before this time, he is not said to have visited either 
Colosse or Laodicea ; — but his route is so described, as to make it 
almost impossible for him to have taken either city directly in his 
way. This circumstance may account for the fact of his distin- 
guishing in this manner a single city like Colosse, of no great size or 
importance ; because as it appears from the general tenor of the epis- 
tle, certain peculiar errors had arisen among them, which were pro- 
bably more dangerously rife, from the circumstance of their never 
having been blessed by the personal presence and labors of an apostle. 
The errors which he particularly attacks, seem to be those of the Ju- 
daizers, who were constantly insisting on the necessity of Mosaical ob- 
servances, such as circumcision, sabbaths, abstinence from unclean 
meats, and other things of the same sort. He cautions them particu- 
larly against certain false doctrines, also referred to under the names 
of philosophy, vain deceit, the traditions of men, &c, which are com- 
monly thought to refer to the errors of the Essenes, a Jewish sect, 
characterized by Josephus in terms somewhat similar, and who are 
supposed to have introduced their ascetic and mystical doctrines 
into the Christian church, and to have formed one of the sources of 
the great system of Gnosticism, as afterwards perfected. The moral 



PAUL. 617 

part of this epistle bears a very striking similarity, even in words, to 
the conclusion of that to the Ephesians, — a resemblance probably 
attributable in part, to the circumstance, that they were written about 
the same time. The circumstance that he has mentioned to the Co- 
lossians an epistle to be sent for by them from Laodicea, has given 
rise to a forged production, purporting to be this very epistle from 
Paul to the Laodiceans ; but it is manifestly a mere brief rhapsody, 
collected from Paul's other epistles, and has never for a moment im- 
posed upon the critical. It has been supposed that the true epistle 
meant by Paul is another, now lost, written by Paul to Laodicea ; 
and the supposition is not unreasonable. 

THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 

This was merely a private letter from Paul to a person otherwise 
not known, but appearing, from the terms in which he is herein 
mentioned, to have been at some time or other associated with Paul 
in the gospel work ; since he styles him " fellow-laborer." He ap- 
pears to have been a man of some property and generosity, because 
he had a house spacious enough to hold a worshiping assembly who 
were freely accommodated by him ; and he is likewise mentioned as 
hospitably entertaining traveling Christians. The possession of some 
wealth is also implied in the circumstance which is the occasion of 
this epistle. Like almost all Christians of that age who were able 
to do so, he owned at least one slave, by name Onesimus, who had 
run away from him to Rome, and there falling under the notice of 
Paul, was made the subject of his personal attentions, and was at 
last converted by him to the Christian faith. Paul now sends him 
back to his old master, with this letter, in which he narrates the cir- 
cumstances connected with the flight and conversion of Onesimus, 
and then with great earnestness, yet with mildness, entreats Phile- 
mon to receive him now, not as a slave, but as a brother, — to forgive 
him his offenses, and restore him to favor. Paul himself offers to - be- 
come personally responsible for all pecuniary loss experienced by 
Philemon, in consequence of the absence of his servant in Rome, 
where he had been ministering to Paul ; and the apostle gives his 
own note of hand for any reasonable amount which Philemon may 
choose to claim. Throughout the whole, he speaks in great confi- 
dence of the ready compliance of Philemon with these requests, and 
evidently considers him a most intimate friend, loving and beloved. 
He also speaks with great confidence of his own speedy release from 
his bonds, and begs Philemon to prepare him a lodging; for he 
trusts that through his prayers, he shall shortly be given to him. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 

That this was written after the others that were sent from Rome 
by Paul during this imprisonment, is proved by several circum- 
stances. Luke was certainly with him when he wrote to the Colos- 



618 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 

sians and to Philemon ; but no mention whatever is made of him in 
the epistle to the Philippians, who would, nevertheless, feel as much 
interest in him as in Timothy or any companion of Paul ; because 
he had resided in Philippi many years, and must have had many ac- 
quaintances there, who would expect some account of him, and some 
salutation from him. Paul, moreover, says, that he trusts to send 
Timothy shortly to them, because he has no man with him who is 
like minded, or who will care for their state ; — a remark which, if 
Luke had been with him, he could not have made with any justice 
to that faithful and diligent associate, who was himself a personal 
acquaintance of the Philippians. There were some circumstances 
connected with the situation of Paul, as referred to in this epistle, 
which seem to imply a different date from those epistles just men- 
tioned. His condition seems improved in many respects, although 
before not uncomfortable, and his expectations of release still more 
confident, though before so strong. He speaks also of a new and 
remarkable field in which his preaching had been successful, and 
that is, the palace of the imperial Caesar himself, among whose 
household attendents were many now numbered among the saints 
who sent salutations to Philippi. The terms in which he mentions 
his approaching release, are still more remarkable than those in the 
former epistles. He says — " Having this confidence, I know that I 
shall abide and continue with you all," &c, " that your rejoicing may 
be more abundant, by my coming to you again." " I trust in the 
Lord that I shall myself also come shortly." 

The immediate occasion of this epistle was the return of Epaphro- 
ditus, the apostle or messenger of the Philippian church, by whom 
Paul now wrote this, as a grateful acknowledgment of their gene- 
rosity in contributing to his support that money, of which Epaphro- 
ditus was the bearer. In the epistle, he also took occasion, after 
giving them an account of his life in Rome, to warn them against 
the errors of the Judaizers, whose doctrines were the occasion of so 
much difficulty in the Christian churches. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

The release which Paul so confidently anticipated, probably hap- 
pened shortly after the writing of the last epistle ; and at this time, 
just before leaving Italy for another field of labor, it is commonly 
believed that he wrote his epistle to the Hebrews. Of the particular 
place, the time, the immediate object, and the persons who were the 
receivers of this epistle, nothing is with any certainty known ; and 
the whole range of statements in standard works of exegetical and 
critical theology, on this writing, is the most appalling mass of vague 
speculations, unfounded conclusions, and contradictory assertions, 
that presents itself to the historian of the apostolic works in any di- 
rection ; and in respect to all these points, referring the critical to any 
or all of the thousand and one views, given in the learned and elabo- 



PAUL. 619 

rate introductions and commentaries, which alone can with any jus- 
tice so much as open the subject, the author excuses himself entirely 
from any discussion of this endless question, in the words used on 
one of these points, by one of the most learned, acute, ingenious, and 
cautious critics of modern times. " Any thing further on this sub- 
ject I am unable to determine, and candidly confess my ignorance 
as to the place where the epistle to the Hebrews was written. Nor 
do I envy any man who pretends to know more on this subject, un- 
less he has discovered sources of intelligence, which have hitherto 
remained unknown. It is better to leave a question in a state of un- 
certainty, than without foundation to adopt an opinion which may 
lead to material errors." 

VOYAGE TO THE EAST. ' 

On leaving Italy after this release, he seems to have directed 
his course eastward ; but nothing whatever is known of his mo- 
tions, except that from the epistle of Titus it is learned that he 
journeyed to Miletus, to Ephesus, to Troas, to Macedonia, to Crete, 
and to Epirus, — and last of all, probably, to Rome. His first move- 
ments on his release were, doubtless, in conformity with his pre- 
vious designs, as expressed in his epistles. He probably went first 
to Asia, visiting Ephesus, Miletus, Colosse, &c. On this voyage 
he might have left Titus in Crete, (as specified in his letter to that 
minister,) and on embarking for Macedonia, left Timothy at Ephe- 
sus, (as mentioned in the first epistle to him.) After visiting Phi- 
lippi and other places in Macedonia where he wrote to Timothy, 
he seems to have crossed over the country to the shore of the 
Ionian sea to Nicopolis, whence he wrote to Titus, to come from 
Crete, and join him there. These two epistles, being of a merely 
personal character, containing instructions for the exercise of the 
apostolic functions of ordination, <fcc, in the absence of Paul, can 
not need any particular historical notice, being so simple in their 
object that they sufficiently explain themselves. Respecting that 
to Timothy, however, it may be specified that* some of its peculiar 
expressions seem to be aimed at the rising heresy of the Jewish 
and Oriental mystics, who were then infecting the eastern churches 
with the first beginnings of that heresy which, under the name 
of Gnosis, or science, (falsely so called,) soon after corrupted with 
its dogmas a vast number in Asia Minor, Greece, and Syria. The 
style and tenor of both of the epistles are so different from all 
Paul's other writings, as to make it very evident that they were 
written at a different time, and under very different circumstances 
from the rest. g2 



620 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



RETURN TO ROME. 



The only real evidence of this movement of Paul is found in 
the tenor of certain passages in the second epistle to Timothy, 
which seem to show that it was written during the author's im- 
prisonment in Rome, but which cannot be connected with his 
former confinement there. In the former epistles written from 
Rome, Timothy was with Paul ; — but this, of course, implies that 
he was absent. In them, Demas is declared to be with Paul ; — 
in this, he is mentioned as having forsaken him, and gone to Thes- 
salonica. In the first epistle to Timothy, Mark was also with Paul, 
and joined in saluting the Colossians : in this, Timothy is in- 
structed to bring him to Paul, because he is profitable to him in 
the ministry. In the fourth chapter, Paul says that " Erastus abode 
at Corinth ;" — an expression which implies that Erastus abode in 
Corinth when Paul left it. But Paul took no journey from Co- 
rinth before his first imprisonment ; for when he left that place for 
the last time before his journey to Jerusalem, — when he was seized 
and sent to Rome, — he was accompanied by Timothy ; and there 
could therefore be no need of informing him of that fact. In the 
same passage of this epistle, he also says that he had left Tro- 
phimus sick at Miletus ; but when Paul passed through Miletus, 
on that journey to Jerusalem, Trophimus certainly was not left 
behind at Miletus, but accompanied him to Jerusalem ; for he was 
seen there with him by the Asian Jews. These two passages, 
therefore, refer to a journey taken subsequent to Paul's first impri- 
sonment, — and the epistle which refers to them, and purports, in 
other passages, to have been written during an imprisonment in 
Rome, shows that he returned thither after his first imprisonment. 

The most striking passage in this epistle also refers with great 
distinctness to his expectation of being very speedily removed from 
apostolic labors to all eternal apostolic reward. " I am now ready 
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have 
fought the good fight ; I have finished my course ; I have kept the 
faith : henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of life, which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." All 
these expressions are utterly at variance with those hopes of re- 
lease, and of the speedy renewal of his labors in an eastern field ; 
and show very plainly that all the tasks to which he once looked 
forward were now completed, and that he could hope for no de- 



PAUL. 621 

liverance, but that which should call him from chains and toils to 
an eternal crown. 

HIS DEATH. 

The circumstance of his being again in Rome a prisoner, after 
having been once set free by the mandate of the emperor himself, 
after a full hearing, must at once require a reference to a state of 
things, in which Paul's religious profession and evangelizing la- 
bors, before esteemed so blameless that no man in Rome forbade 
him to preach the gospel there, — had now, by a mighty revolution 
in opinions, become a crime, since for these, he was now held in 
bondage, without the possibility of escape from the threatened death. 
Such a change actually did occur in the latter part of the reign 
of Nero, when, as already related in the history of St. Peter's first 
epistle, the whole power of the imperial government was turned 
against the Christians, as a sect, and they were convicted on that 
accusation alone, as deserving of death. The date of this revo- 
lution in the condition of the Christians, is fixed by Roman his- 
tory in the sixty-fourth year of Christ ; and the time when Paul 
was cast into chains the second time, must therefore be referred to 
this year. His actual death evidently did not take place at once, 
but was deferred long enough to allow of his writing to Timothy, 
and for him to make some arrangements therein, for a short con- 
tinuance of his labors. The date which is commonly fixed as 
the time of his execution, is in the year of Christ 65 ; but, in truth, 
nothing whatever is known about it, nor can even a probability be 
confidently affirmed on the subject. Being a Roman citizen, he 
could not die by a mode so infamous as that of the cross, but was 
beheaded, as a more honorable exit ; and with this view, the testi- 
mony of most of the early Fathers, who particularize his death, 
distinctly accords. 

Of the various fictions which the monkish story-tellers have invented to gratify 
the curiosity which Christian readers feel about other particulars of the apostle's 
character, the following is an amusing specimen. " Paul, if we may believe Nice- 
phorus, was of a low and small stature, somewhat stooping; his complexion fair; his 
countenance grave; his head small ; his eyes sparkling; his nose high and bending: 
and his hair thick and dark, but mixed with gray. His constitution was weak, and 
often subject to distempers; but his mind was strong, and endued with a solid judge- 
ment, quick invention, and prompt memory, which were all improved by art, and the 
advantages of a liberal education. Besides the epistles which are owned to be genu-' 
ine, several other writings are falsely ascribed to him : as an epistle to the Laodiceans, 
a third to the Thessalonians, a third to the Corinthians, a second to the Ephesians, 
his letter to Seneca, his Acts, his Revelation, his voyage to Thecla, and his Ser- 
mons." (Cave's Lives of the Apostles.) 

But the honors and saintship of Paul are recorded, not in the 



622 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

vague and misty traces of bloody martyr-death, but in the far 
more glorious achievments of a heroic life. In these, are con- 
tained the essence of his greatness ; to these, all the Gentile world 
owes its salvation ; and on these, the modern historian, follow- 
ing the model of the sacred writers, dwells with far more mi- 
nuteness and particularity, than on a dull mass of uncertain tra- 
dition. 



JOSEPH BARNABAS. 



Of this apostle so few circumstances are known, that are not 
inseparably connected with the life of Paul, in which they have 
been already recorded, that only a very brief space can be occu- 
pied with the events of his distinct life. The first passage in 
which he is mentioned, is that in the fourth chapter of Acts, where 
he is specified as having distinguished himself among those who 
sold their lands, for the sake of appropriating the avails to the 
support of the Christian community. Introduced to the notice of 
the reader under these most honorable circumstances, he is there 
described as of the tribe of Levi, and yet a resident in the island of 
Cyprus, where he seems to have held the land which he sacrificed 
to the purposes of religious charity. This island was for a long 
time, before and after that period, inhabited by great numbers of 
wealthy Jews, and there was hardly any part of the world where 
they were so powerful and so favored as in Cyprus ; so that even 
the sacred order of the Levites might well find inducements to 
j^ve that consecrated soil to which they were more especially at- 
iShed by the peculiar ordinances of the Mosaic institutions, and 
seek on this beautiful and fertile island a new home, and a new 
seat for the faith of their fathers. The occasion on which Joseph 
(for that was his original name) left Cyprus to visit Jerusalem, is 
not known ; nor can it even be determined whether he was ever 
himself a personal hearer of Jesus. He may very possibly have 
been one of the foreign Jews present at the Pentecost, and may 
there have been first converted to the Christian faith. On his dis- 
tinguishing himself among his new brethren, both by good words 
and generous deeds, he was honored by the apostles with the name 
of Barnabas, which is interpreted in Greek by words that may 
mean either " son of consolation" or " son of exhortation." The 
former sense, of course, would aptly refer to his generosity in 
comforting the poor apostolic community, by his pecuniary contri- 
butions, as just before mentioned ; and this has induced many to 
prefer that meaning ; but the majority of critical translators and 



624 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

commentators have been led, on a careful investigation both of the 
original Hebrew word and of the Greek translation of it, to prefer 
the meaning of " son of exhortation" or " instruction" a meaning 
which certainly well accords with the subsequent distinction at- 
tained by him in his apostolic labors. Both senses may, however, 
have been referred to, with an intentional equivoque. 

" Acts, ch. iv. ver. 37. v-napx 0VT °s <™ r< j' "y? ^ He could not have sold that which 
was his paternal inheritance as a Levite; but this might perhaps be some legacy, or 
purchase of land in Judea, to which he might have a title till the next jubilee, or per- 
haps some land in Cyprus. (Doddridge.) That it was lawful for the Levites to buy 
land, we learn from the example of Jeremiah himself, who was of the tribe of Levi. 
See Jer. xxxii. 17. It is observed by Bp. Pearce, that those commentators who con- 
tend that this land must have belonged to his wife, because, according to the law 
mentioned in Numb, xviii. 20, 23, and 24, a Levite could have no inheritance in Israel, 
seem to have mistaken the sense of that law, ' which,' says he, ' means only that the 
Levites, as a tribe, were not to have a share in the division of Canaan among the 
other tribes. This did not hinder any Levite from possessing lands in Judea, either 
by purchase or by gift, as well as in right of his wife. Josephus was a Levite, and 
a priest, too ; and yet in his Life, ch. 76, he speaks of lands which he had lying about 
Jerusalem, and in exchange of which, Vespasian gave him others, for his greater be- 
nefit and advantage. After all, I see no reason why we may not suppose that this 
land, which Barnabas had and sold, was not land in Judea; and if so, the words of 
the law, '• no inheritance in Israel,' did not, however understood, affect their case. 
His land might have been in his own country, Cyprus, an island at no great distance 
from Judea; and he might have sold it at Jerusalem to some purchaser there; per- 
haps to one of his own countrymen.' " (Bloomfield's Annot. Vol. IV. pp. 147, 148.) 

In all the other passages of the New Testament in which he 
is mentioned, he is associated with Paul, and every recorded act 
of his life has been already given in the life of his great associate. 
His first acquaintance with him on his return to Jerusalem after 
his conversion, — his mission to Antioch, and labors there in con- 
junction with Paul, when he had brought him from Tarsus, — their 
visit to Jerusalem, — their return to Antioch, — their first great 
mission through Asia Minor — their visit to Jerusalem, at the coun- 
cil, and their joint report, — their second return to Antioch, — their 
proposed association in a new mission, — their contention and sepa- 
ration, — have all been fully detailed ; nor is there any authentic 
source from which any facts can be derived, as to the subsequent 
incidents of his life. All that is related of him in the Acts, is, 
that after his separation from Paul, he sailed to Cyprus; nor is 
any mention made, m any of the epistles, of his subsequent life. 
The time and place of his death are also unknown. 



JOHN MARK. 



Of the family and birth of this eminent apostolic associate, it is 
recorded in the New Testament, that his mother was named Mary, 
and had a house in Jerusalem, which was a regular place of reli- 
gious assembly for the Christians in that city ; for Peter, on his 
deliverance from prison, went directly thither, as though sure of 
finding there some of the brethren ; and he actually did find a 
number of them assembled for prayer. Of the other connexions 
of Mark, the interesting fact is recorded, that Mary, his mother, 
was the sister of Barnabas ; and he was therefore by the maternal 
line, at least, of Levite descent. From the mode in which Mary 
is mentioned, it would seem that her husband was dead at that 
time ; but nothing else can be inferred about the father of Mark. 
The first event in which he is distinctly mentioned as concerned, 
is the return of Paul and Barnabas from Jerusalem to Antioch, 
after Peter's escape. These two apostles, on this occasion, are 
said to have " taken with them, John whose surname was Mark ;" 
and he is afterwards mentioned under either of these names, or 
both together. The former was his original appellation ; but being 
exceedingly, common among the Jews, and being, moreover, borne 
by one of the apostles, it required another distinctive word to be 
joined with it. It is remarkable that a Roman, heathen appellation, 
was chosen for this purpose ; — Marcus, which is the true form in 
the original, being a name of purely Latin origin, and one of the 
commonest praenomens among the Romans. It might have been 
the name of some person connected with the Roman government 
in Jerusalem, who had distinguished himself as a friend or patron 
of the family: but the conjecture is hardly worth offering. 

After returning with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, he was 
next called to accompany them as an assistant in their apostolic 
voyage through Cyprus and Asia Minor ; but on their coming to 
Perga, in Pamphylia, he suddenly left them and returned to Jeru- 
salem ; — a change of purpose which was considered, by Paul at 
least, as resulting from a want of resolution, steadiness, or courage, 
83 



626 LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 






and was the occasion of a very serious difficulty ; for Mark having 
returned to Antioch afterwards, was taken by Barnabas as a proper 
associate on the proposed mission over the former fields of labor ; 
but Paul utterly rejected him, because he had already, on the same 
route, once deserted them, when they needed his services, and he 
therefore refused to go in his company again. This difference was 
the occasion of that unhappy contention, the incidents of which 
have already been particularly detailed in the Life of Paul. Mark, 
however, being resolutely supported by his uncle, accompanied 
him to Cyprus ; but of his next movement as little is known as in 
respect to Barnabas. The next occasion on which his name is 
mentioned, is by Paul, in his epistles to the Colossians and Phile- 
mon, as being then with him in Rome ; from which it appears the 
great apostle had now for a long time been reconciled to him, and 
esteemed him as a valuable associate in the ministry. He is not 
mentioned' in the epistle to the Philippians, which therefore makes 
it probable that he had then gone to the east. In the second epis- 
tle to Timothy, Paul requests that Mark may be sent to him, be- 
cause he is profitable to him for the ministry ; which is a most 
abundant testimony to his merits, and to the re-establishment of 
Paul's confidence in his zeal, resolution, and ability. Whether he 
was actually sent to Rome as requested, does not appear ; — but he 
is afterwards distinctly mentioned by Peter, in that epistle which 
he wrote from Babylon, as being then with him. The title of 
" son," which Peter gives him, seems to imply a very near and fa- 
miliar intimacy between them ; and is probably connected with the 
circumstance of his being made the subject of the chief apostle's 
particular religious instructions in his youth, in consequence of the 
frequent meetings of the brethren at the house of his mother, Mary. 
This passage is sufficient evidence that after Mark had finally left 
Rome, he journeyed eastward and joined Peter, his venerable first 
instructor, who, as has already been abundantly shown in his Life, 
was at this time in Babylon, whence, in the year 65, he wrote his 
first epistle. 

" It is thought by Benson that Mark departed because his presence was required 
by the apostles for converting the Jews of Palestine. But why then should Paul 
have expressed indignation at his departure 1 The same objection will apply to the 
conjecture of others, that he departed on account of ill health. The most probable 
opinion is that of Grotius, "Wetstein, Bengel, Heumann, and others, that Mark was, 
al that time, somewhat averse to labors and dangers; this, indeed, is clear, from the 
words Ka\ p.r; aw£\Q6vra avroTs c?s to k'pyov. Thus cfyitrryjH is used of defection in Luke 
viii. 13. Tim. iv. 1. It should seem that Mark had now repented of his inconstancy; 
(and, as Bengel thinks, new ardor had been infused into him by the decree of the Sy- 
nod at Jerusalem, and the free admission of the Gentiles ;) and hence his kind-hearted 



JOHN MARK. 627 

and obliging relation, Barnabas, wished to take him as a companion of their present 
journey. But Paul, who had ' no respect of persons,' Gal. ii. 11, and thought that 
disposition rather than relationship should be consulted, distrusted the constancy of 
Mark, and Avas therefore unwilling to take him. This severity of Paul, however, 
rendered much service both to Mark and to the cause of Christianity. For Mark 
profited by the well-meant admonition, and was, for the future, more zealous and 
courageous; and the gospel, being preached in different places at the same time, was 
the more widely propagated. Nor were the bands of amity between Paul and Bar- 
nabas permanently separated by this disagreement. See 1 Cor. ix. G. Nay, Paul 
afterwards received Mark into his friendship. See Col. iv. 10; 2 Tim. iv. 11; Phi- 
lem. 23." Kuin. (Bloomfield's Annot. Vol. IV. p. 504, 505.) 

HIS GOSPEL. 

The circumstance which makes this apostle more especially 
eminent, and makes him an object of interest to the Christian, 
reader, is, that he is the author of an important portion of the his- 
torical sacred canon. Respecting the gospel of Mark, the testi- 
mony of some very early and valuable accounts given by the 
Fathers, is, that he wrote under the general direction and super- 
intendence of his spiritual father, Peter ; and from this early and 
uniform tradition, he accordingly bears the name of " Peter's in- 
terpreter." The very common story is, also, that it was written 
in Rome ; but this is not asserted on any early or trustworthy au- 
thority, and must be condemned, along with all those statements 
which pretend that the chief apostle ever was in Italy. Others 
affirm, also, that it was published by him in Alexandria ; but this 
story comes on too late authority to be highly esteemed. Taking 
as true, the very reasonable statement of the early Fathers, that 
when he wrote he had the advantage of the personal assistance or 
superintendence of Peter, it is very fair to conclude, that Babylon 
was the place in which it was written, and that its date was about 
the same with that of the epistle of Peter, in which Mark is men- 
tioned as being with him. Peter was then old ; and Mark himself, 
doubtless too young to have been an intelligent hearer of Jesus, 
would feel the great importance of having a correct and well-au- 
thorized record prepared, to which the second generation of Chris- 
tians might look for the sure testimonies of those divine words, 
whose spoken accounts were then floating in the parting breath of 
the few and venerable apostles, and in the memories of their favored 
hearers. As long as the apostles lived and preached, there was 
little or no need of a written gospel. All believers in Christ had 
been led to that faith by the living words of his inspired hearers 
and personal disciples. But when these were gone, other means 
would be wanted for the perpetuation of the authenticated truth ; 
and to afford these means to the greatest possible number, and to 



628 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

those most especially in want of such a record, from the fact that 
they had never seen nor heard either Jesus or his personal disci- 
ples, — Mark chose the Greek as the proper language in which to 
make this communication to the world. 

His gospel is so much like that of Matthew, containing hardly 
a single passage which is not given by that writer, that it has been 
very confidently believed by many theologians, who suppose an 
early date to Matthew's gospel, that Mark had that gospel before 
him when he wrote, and merely epitomized it. The verbal coin- 
cidences between the two gospels, in their present state, are so nu- 
merous and striking, that it has been considered impossible to ac- 
count for them on any other supposition than this. But these and 
other questions have rilled volumes, and have exercised the skill 
of critics for ages ; nor can any justice be done them by a hasty 
abstract. It seems sufficient, however, to answer all queries about 
these verbal coincidences, without meddling with the question of 
prior date, by a reference to the fact that, during the whole period 
intervening between the death of Christ and the writing of the 
gospels, the apostles and first preachers had been proclaiming, 
week after week, and day after day, an oral or spoken gospel, in 
which they were constantly repeating before each other, and before 
different hearers, the narrative of the words and actions of Jesus. 
These accounts, by this constant routine of repetition, would un- 
avoidably assume a regular established form, which would at last 
be the standard account of the acts and words of the Savior. 
These, Mark, of course, adopted when he wrote, and the other 
evangelists doing the same, the coincidences mentioned would na- 
turally result ; and as different apostles, though speaking under 
the influence of inspiration, would yet make numerous slight va- 
riations in words, and in the minor circumstances expressed or 
suppressed, the different writers following one account or the other, 
would make the trifling variations also noticeable. The only pe- 
culiarity that can be noticed in Mark, is, that he very uniformly 
suppresses all those splendid testimonies to the merits and honors 
of Peter, with which the others abound, — a circumstance at once 
easily traceable to the fact that Peter himself was the immediate 
director of the work, and with that noble modesty which always 
distinguished the great apostolic chief, would naturally avoid any 
allusion to matters which so highly exalted his own merits. Other- 
wise, the narrative of Mark can be characterized only as a plain 
statement of the incidents in the public life of Jesus, with very 



JOHN MARK. 629 

few of his discourses, and none of his words at so great length as 
in the other gospels ; from which it is evident, that an account of 
his acts rather than his sermons, — of his doings rather than his 
sayings, — is what he designed to give. 

" Among all the quotations hitherto made from the writings of the most ancient 
Fathers, we find no mention made of Mark's having published his gospel at Alexan- 
dria. This report, however, prevailed in the fourth century, as appears from what 
is related by Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Jerome. It is first, mentioned by Eusebius in 
his ecclesiastical History, lib. ii. cap. 16. It appears from the word <paaiv, that Euse- 
bius mentions this only as a report; and what is immediately added in the same place, 
that the persons, whose severity of life and manners is described by Philo, were the 
converts which Mark made at Alexandria, is evidently false. Epiphanius, in his 
fifty-first Heresy, ch. vi., gives some account of it. According to his statement, Mark 
wrote his gospel in Rome, while Peter was teaching the Christian religion in that 
city; and after he had written it, he was sent by Peter into Egypt. A similar account 
is given by Jerome in his ' Treatise on Illustrious Men," ch. viii. Lastly, the Coptic 
Christians of the present age consider Mark as the founder and first bishop of their 
church; and their Patriarch styles himself— ' Unworthy servant of Jesus Christ, 
called by the grace of God, and by his gracious will appointed to his service, and to 
the see of the holy evangelist Mark.' The Copts pretend, likewise, that Mark was 
murdered by a band of robbers, near the lake Menzale ; but if this account be true, 
he was hardly buried at Alexandria, and his tomb in that city must be one of the for- 
geries of early superstition." (Michaelis, Vol. III. pp. 207—209.) 

That it is not wholly new to rank Mark among the apostles, is shown by the usages 
of the Fathers, who, in the application of terms, are authority, as far as they show 
the opinions prevalent in their times. Eusebius says, " that in the eighth year of 
Nero, Anianus, the first bishop of Alexandria after Mark, the apostle and evangelist, 

took upon him the care of that church." IlptOTOS /xtTa ~MapK0V rov aitogo\ov nai ivayyz- 
^tgriv, rris ev A\z^av8psia napoiKias, A.viavos ttjv Xstrovpyiap (UaSeysrai. H. E. I. 2. Cap. 24. 

TLardner's Cred. Vol. III. p. 176.) 

Of the later movements of Mark nothing is known with cer- 
tainty. Being evidently younger than most of the original apos- 
tles, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he long survived them ; 
but his field of labor is unknown. The common tradition among 
the Fathers, after the third century, is, that he went to Alexandria, 
and there founding a church, became bishop of it till his death ; 
• — but the statement is mixed up with so much that is palpably 
false that it is not entitled to any credit. 



LUKE. 



Very little direct mention is made of this valuable contributor 
to the sacred canon, in any part of the New Testament ; and those 
notices which seem to refer to him are so vague, that they have 
been denied to have any connexion with the evangelist. The 
name which is given in the title of his gospel is, in the original 
form, Lucas, a name undoubtedly of Latin origin, but shown by 
its final syllable to be a Hebrew- Greek corruption and abridgment 
of some pure Roman word ; for it was customary for the New Tes- 
tament writers to make these changes, to accord with their own 
forms of utterance. Lucas, therefore, is an abridgment of some 
one of two or three Roman words, either Lucius, Lucilkis, or Lu- 
canus ; and as the writers of that age were accustomed to write 
either the full or abridged form of any such name, indifferently, it 
seems allowable to recognize the Lucius mentioned in Acts and in 
the Epistle to the Romans, as the same person with the evangelist. 
From the manner in which this Lucius is mentioned in the last 
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, it would seem that he was re- 
lated to Paul by blood or marriage, since the apostle mentions him 
along with Jason and Sosipater, as his " kinsman." In the begin- 
ning fc of the thirteenth chapter of Acts, Lucius is called " the Cy- 
renian," whence his country may be inferred to have been the pro- 
vince of northern Africa, called Cyrene, long and early the seat of 
Grecian refinement, art, eloquence, and philosophy, and immortal- 
ized by having given name to one of the sects of Grecian philoso- 
phers, — the Cyrenaic school, founded by Aristippus. Whether he 
was a Jew by birth, or a heathen, is not known, and has been 
much disputed. His birth and education in that seat of Grecian 
literature, may be reasonably considered as having contributed to 
that peculiar elegance of his language and style which distin- 
guishes him as the most correct of all the writers of the New Tes- 
tament. 

His relationship to Paul, (if it may be believed on so slight 
grounds,) was probably a reason for his accompanying him as he 



LUKE. 631 

did through so large a portion of his travels and labors. He first 
speaks of himself as a companion of Paul, at the beginning of his 
first voyage to Europe, at Troas, and accompanies him to Philippi, 
where he seems to have parted from him, since, in describing the 
movements of the apostolic company, he no longer uses the pro- 
noun " we." He probably staid in or near Philippi several years, 
for he resumes the word in describing Paul's voyage from Philippi 
to Jerusalem. He was his companion as far as Caesarea, where 
he probably staid during Paul's visit to Jerusalem ; remained with 
him perhaps during his two years' imprisonment in Caesarea, and 
was certainly his companion on his voyage to Rome. He remained 
with him there till a short time before his release ; and is mentioned 
no more till Paul, in his last writing, the second epistle to Timo- 
thy, says — " Luke alone is with me." Beyond this, not the slight- 
est trace remains of his history. Nothing additional is known of 
him, except that he was a physician; for he is mentioned by Paul, 
in his Epistle to the Colossians, as " Luke, the beloved physician." 
The miserable fiction of some of the papistical romances, that 
Luke was also a painter, and took portraits of Jesus Christ, the 
Virgin Mary, &c, is almost too shamelessly impudent to be ever 
mentioned ; yet the venerable Cave, the only writer who has here- 
tofore given in full the laves of the Apostles, refers to it, without 
daring to deny its truth ! 

(That Luke was also regarded by the Fathers as an apostle, is shown by the fact 
that, in the Synopsis ascribed to Athanasius, it is said that the gospel of Luke was 
dictated by the apostle Paul, and written and published by the blessed apostle and 
physician, Luke.) 

HIS WRITINGS. 

But a far more valuable testimony of the character of Luke is 
found in those noble works which bear his name in the inspired 
canon. His gospel is characterized by remarkable distinctness of 
expression and clearness of conception, which, with that correct- 
ness of language by which it is distinguished above all the other 
books of the New Testament, conspire to make it the most easy 
to be understood of all the writings of the New Testament ; and 
it has been the subject of less comment and criticism than any 
other of the sacred books. From the language which he uses in 
his preface, about those who had undertaken similar works before 
him, it would seem that, though several unauthorized accounts of 
the life and discourses of Jesus were published before him, yet 
neither of the other gospels was known by him to have been 



632 LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

written. He promises, by means of a thorough investigation of 
all facts to the. sources, to give a more complete statement than had 
ever before been given to those for whom he wrote. Of the time 
when he wrote it, therefore, it seems fair to conclude, that it was 
before the other two ; but a vast number of writers have thought 
differently, and many other explanations of his words have been 
offered. Of his immediate sources of information, — the place 
where he wrote, and the particular person to whom he addresses it, 
nothing is known with sufficient certainty to be worth recording. 
Of the Acts of the Apostles, nothing need be said in respect to 
the contents and object, so clear and distinct is this beautiful piece 
of biography, in all particulars. Its date may be fixed with ex- 
actness at the end of the second year of Paul's first imprisonment, 
which, according to common calculations, is A. D. 63. It may 
well become the modern apostolic historian, in closing with the 
mention of this writing his own prolonged yet hurried work, to 
acknowledge the excellence, the purity, and the richness of the 
source from which he has thus drawn so large a portion of the 
materials of the greatest of these Lives. Yet what can he add to 
the bright testimonies accumulated through long ages, to the honor 
and praise of this most noble of historic records ? The learned 
of eighteen centuries have spent the best energies of noble minds, 
and long, studious lives, in comment and in illustration of its clear, 
honest truth, and its graphic beauty ; the humble, inquiring Chris- 
tian reader, in every age, too, has found, and in every age will 
find, in this, the only safe and faithful outline of the great events 
of the apostolic history. The most perfect and permanent impres- 
sion, which a long course of laborious investigation and composition 
has left on the author's mind, of the task which he now lays down, 
exhausted yet not disgusted, is, that beyond the apostolic history 
of Luke, nothing can be known with certainty of the great persons 
of whose acts he treats, except the disconnected and floating cir- 
cumstances which may be gleaned by implication from the epistles ; 
and so marked is the transition from the pure honesty of the sa- 
cred record, to the grossness of patristic fiction, that the truth is, 
even to a common eye, abundantly well characterized by its own 
excellence. On the passages of such a narrative, the lights of 
criticism, of Biblical learning, and of contemporary history, may 
often be needed, to make the sometimes unconnected parts appear 
in their true historic relations. The writer who draws therefrom, 
too, the facts for a connected biography, may, in the amplifications 






LUKE. 633 

of a modem style, perhaps more to the surprise than the admira- 
tion of his readers, quite protract the bare simplicity of the origi- 
nal record, " in many a winding bout of linked" wordiness, " long 
drawn out," — but the modernizing extension and illustration, 
though it may bring small matters more prominently to the notice 
and perception of the reader, can never supply the place of the 
original, — to improve which, comment and illustration are alike 
vain. When will human learning and labor perfect the exposition 
and the illustration of the apostolic history ? Its comments are 
written in the eternal hope of uncounted millions ; — its illustra- 
tions can be fully read only in the destiny of ages. This record 
was the noble task of " the beloved physician ;" in his own melo- 
dious language — " To give knowledge to the people, of salvation 
by remission of sins through the tender mercy of our God, whereby 
the day-spring from on high hath visited us, — to give light to them 
that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, — to guide our 
feet in the way of peace !" 
84 



MATERIALS. 

In the narrative of the lives of the twelve, the author has been 
driven entirely to the labor of new research and composition, because 
the task of composing complete biographies of these personages had 
never before been undertaken on so large a scale. Cave's Lives of 
the Apostles, the only work that has ever gone over that ground, is 
much more limited in object and extent than the task here under- 
taken, and afforded no aid whatever to the author of this work, in 
those biographies. Both the text and the notes of that part of the 
work are entirely new, nothing whatever, except a few acknow- 
ledged quotations of those biographies, having ever appeared before 
on this subject. A list of the works which were resorted to in the 
prosecution of this new work, would fill many pages, and would an- 
swer no useful purpose, after the numerous references made to each 
source in connexion with the passage which was thence derived. It 
is sufficient in justice to himself to say that all those references were 
made by the author himself; nor in one instance, that can now be 
recollected, did he quote second-hand without acknowledging the in- 
termediate source. In the second part of the work, the labor was in 
a field less completely occupied by previous labor. But throughout 
that part of the work, also, the whole text of the narrative is original ; 
and all the fruits of others' research are, with hardly one exception, 
credited in the notes, both to the original and to the medium through 
which, they were derived. In this portion of the work, much labor 
has been saved, by making use of the very full illustrations given in 
the works of those who had preceded the author on the life of Paul, 
whose biography has frequently received the attention and labor of 
the learned. 

The following have been most useful in this part of the work. 
" Hermann! Witsii Meletemata Leidensia, Par. 1. Vita Pauli Apos- 
toli." 4to. Leidiae, 1703.—" Der Apostel Paulus. Von J. T. Hem- 
sen." 8vo. Goettingen, 1830. — " Pearson's Annals of Paul, translated, 
with notes, by Jackson Muspratt Williams." 12mo. Cambridge, 1827. 



MST OF ENGRAVINGS, 



1. FRONTISPIECE,— CHRIST'S CHARGE TO PETER. 

2. TIBERIAS, AND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 

3. FORDS OF THE JORDAN. 

4. MOUNT MORIAH. 

5. JERUSALEM, FROM THE LATIN CONVENT. 

6. VALLEY OF THE BROOK KEDRON, BETWEEN JERUSA- 

LEM AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. 

7. JAFFA,— JOPPA. 

8. ANTIOCH, IN SYRIA. 

9. BETHLEHEM, AT NIGHT. 

10. DAMASCUS. 

11. THE AREOPAGUS, OR MARS HILL ; WITH THE TEMPLE 

OF THESEUS, ATHENS. 

12. MILETUS. 

13. CORINTH,— CENCHREA. 

14. EPHESUS,— RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF DIANA. 

15. MITYLENE. 

16. SYRACUSE. 

17. PUTEOLI. 



INDEX 



Absurd papal stories of Peter, 239. 
Accusing prosecutor, 265. 
Accuser, 451. 

Accusation of Stephen, 174. 
Aeneas, healed by Peter, 186. 
Agabus, prophesies a famine, 511. 

predicts Paul's imprisonment, 
594. 
Agapae, or love feasts, 159. 
Age, Apostolic, 20. 
Agrippa, Herod, 201, 205. 

imprisoned by Tiberius, 203. 

created king by Caius Caesar, 
203. 

Judea added to his kingdom by 
Claudius, 204. 

his death, eaten of worms, 225. 
Agrippa II., visits Festus, 606. 

gives audience to Paul and de- 
clares him innocent, 607. 
Agony in the garden, Christ's, 120. 
A heathen and an outcast, 99. 
A Hebrew of the Hebrews, 479. 
Alexander the great, 474. 
Alexandrian Jews, congregation of at 

Jerusalem, 177. 
Alijah, place of prayer, 193. 
A little skiff, 139. 
All things in common, 157. 
All the words of this life, 174. 
A lonely place, 68. 
Alpheus, Son of, 411. 
Amphipolis, city of Macedon, 543, 

545. 
Ammianus Marcellus, Roman histo- 
rian, 473. 



Ananias, high priest, 599. 

Ananias and Sapphira, 167, 168. 

Ananias restores Paul's sight, 502. 

Anaxores, 477. 

Anaximander, 477. 

Anchialus, city of, founded by Sarda- 

napalus, 474. 
ANDREW, scriptural history of, 288. 

first Apostle called, 288. 

baptised by John, 288. 

brings Peter to Christ, 290. 

leaves his father to follow Je- 
sus, 289. 

traditionary history of, 291. 

older than Peter, 44. 

mission to Scythia, 291. 

St. Bernard's sermons on, 295. 
Andromeda, 188. 
Angel appears to Cornelius, 193. 
Annas and Caiaphas, high priests, 163. 
Annas, imprisons the apostles, 170. 
Anointed with oil, 66. 
Apocalypse, 342. 

did the Apostle John write it ? 
344. 

doubted by Luther, Calvin, and 
Zuingle, 345. 

testimony of the Fathers, 346. 

internal evidence, 348. 

with what design was it writ- 
ten? 348. 

what is the style ? 357. 
APOSTLES, names and division of, 
18. 

Andrew, 287. 

Barnabas, 623. 



640 



INDEX. 



Apostles, Bartholomew, 381. 

James, 298. 

James, the Little, 411. 

John, 307. 

Judas Iscariot, 445. 

Jude, 437. 

Luke, 630. 

Matthew, 386. 

Matthias, 464. 

Mark, 625. 

Paul, 469. 

Philip, 377. 

Simon Peter, 43. 

Simon Zelotes, 434. 

Thomas, 404. 
Apostle, derivation of the word, 9. 

exegetical notes on its Scriptural 
and classical signification, 10. 

to what persons applied in this 
work, 17. 

first seizure of the, 162. Trial, 
163. 

increasing fame of the, 168. 

second seizure and trial, 170. 

living in common, 157. 

receive the gift of tongues, 148. 

thought to be drunken, 153. 

escape from prison, 170. 

appoint deacons, 175. 

leave Jerusalem before its de- 
struction, 260. 

dispute about precedence, 303. 

eat the paschal feast, 316. 

to the Gentiles, 498. 
Apostolic Age, world in the, 20. 
Apostolic protomariyr, 306. 
A piece of money, 96. 
Apollos, a learned Jew, converted at 

Ephesus, 570. 
Appointment of deacons, 175. 
Apollonia, city of Macedonia, 545. 
Aquilas and Priscilla, meet Paul at 

Corinth, 556. 
Aqueducts, Roman, 24. 
Aratus, school of, 477. 
Arabia Felix, 384. 
Aretas, governor of Damascus, 493. 
Areopagus at Athens, 549. 
Artemis, or Diana of the Ephesians, 
578. 



Armed bands, 124. 
Ascension of Christ, 141. 

date of the, 145. 
Ascension of Moses, 441. 
Asia, name of, how used in the N. T. 

264. 
Asians, a Jewish sect. 177. 
Assos, 591, 593. 
Attendents, 168. 

Babylon, city of, 258, 261. 

Peter's visit to, 258. 

Chaldean, 260. 
Banias, site of ancient Caesarea Phi, 

lippi, 84. 
Banishment of the Jews from Rome 

by Claudius Caesar, 244. 
Baptism of John, 572. 
Baptised of the Holy Ghost, 145. 
Bar- Jesus, 515. 
BARNABAS, Joseph, 623. 

and Paul set apart for a mission 
to the Gentiles, 512. 

taken for gods, 522. 

oppose the doctrine of the cir- 
cumcision, 526. 

return to Jerusalem, 526. 

contention with Paul about 
Mark, 531. 
BARTHOLOMEW, Nathanael,381 . 

his name and call, 381. 

at the Cana wedding, 383. 

his apostleship, 384. 

preaches the gospel in Arabia, 
384. 

traditions of his death, 385. 
Beautiful gate of the temple, 161. 
Beginning of peace, 184. 
Beroea, a city of Macedon, 547. 
Bethabara, 288, 290. 
Bethsaida, city of, 48. 
Bishop of Jerusalem, 425. 
Blasting the fig tree, 106. 
Blaze of light, 222. 
Bloody sweat of Christ, 120. 
Boanerges, James, 298. 
Book of Enoch, 440. 
Breaking of bread from house to 
house, 158. 

explanation of, 159. 



INDEX. 



641 



Brothers of Jesus, 415, 438. 
Brotherly forbearance, rule of, 97. 
Brutus and Cassius, 476. 

Caesar, Julius, 20. 

Christ's forerunner, 25. 

most perfect character of all an- 
tiquity, 26. 

sketch of his character, 27. 
Caesar, Caius, becomes emperor, 203. 
Caesar, Claudius, emperor, 204. 

success of his arms, 234. 

banishes the Jews from Rome, 
244. 
Caesarea, 192, 569. 
Caesarea Augusta, 225. 
Caesarea Palestina, 193. 
Caesarea Philippi, 82. 

seat of the Roman government 
in Palestine, 191. 
Caiaphas, high priest, 163. 
Caligula, emperor of Rome, 203. 
Call to the heathen, 189. 
Calvary, vale of, 131. 
Canaanite, Simon the, 434. 
Capernaum, account of, 59. 
Cassius, 475. 
Castle Antonia, description of, 214. 

Peter's miraculous liberation 
from, 220. 
Caius Caesar, 203. 
Cerinthis, contemporary with John, 

366. 
Cestius Gallius destroys Lydda, 186. 

attacks Jerusalem, 326. 
Chaldean Babylon, 260. 
Challenge the testimony of God, 252. 
Change your hearts, 154. 
Chain on each side, 220. 
Chair of Peter preserved at Rome, 

242. 
Chios, island of, 593. 
CHRIST, 25. 

visit to Capernaum, 60. 

miracles, 64. 

taught out of a ship, 61. 

transfiguration, 79. 

prayer on the mountain, 89. 

pays tribute to Caesar, 95. 

journey to Jerusalem, 99. 



Christ, entry into Jerusalem, 103. 

blasts the fig tree, 106. 

discussion with the sectaries, 
107. 

prophecy of the temple's ruin, 
108. 

washes his disciples' feet, 113. 

agony in Gethsemane, 119. 

betrayed by Judas, 122. 

crucifixion, 130. 
date of, 211. 

resurrection, 132. 

sepulcher in the garden, 133. 

appears to his disciples, 134. 

miracle of the fishes on Lake 
Tiberius, 135, 320. 

charge to Peter, 137. 

ascension, 141. 

condemned for alleged revolt 
against Caesar, 209. 

rejects the petition of James and 
John for precedence, 303. 

sets a little child before his dis- 
ciples, 305. 

rebukes the sons of thunder, 315. 

points out who should betray 
him, 318, 457. 

commends his mother to John, 
319. 

not believed on by his brothers 
and friends, 416. 

thought to be insane, 417. 

why hated by the Sanhedrim, 
454. 

anointed by Mary, 452. 
Christian triumphs, 30. 

persecution of, 179. 

community, constitution of, 157. 

first mentioned in Roman histo- 
ry, 268. 

flee from Jerusalem, 326. 

take refuge in Pella, 327. 

name first given at Antioch, 510. 
Church, increase of the, 154. 

surveyed, 185. 
Chronological events, 21. 
Chrysippus, the stoic, 477. 
Cicero in Cilicia, 474. 
Cilicia, description of, 470. 

modern history of, 475. 



642 



INDEX. 



Cilician goats, 485. 
Circumcision, disputes on, 525. 
Claudius Caesar, 204, 207. 

Lysias, tribune at Jerusalem, 

597. 
Cleopatra, 474. 
Clopas and Alpheus, etymology of, 

414. 
Cloven tongues, 150. 
Cocceius Nerva succeeds Domitian 
on the throne of the Caesars, 

363. 
Cock crew, 129. 
Colossians, epistle to, 616. 
Community of goods, 157. 
Committing the keeping of their souls 

to God, 268. 
Consultation of the Apostles at Jeru- 
salem, 597. 
Conjurors at Ephesus burn their 

books, 574. 
Coos, island of, 594. 
Corpos santos, 157. 
Cornelian race, 191. 
Cornelius the centurion, 191. 

vision of, 193. 
Cripple cured by Peter and John, 159. 
Crispus, ruler of the synagogue at 

Athens, converted, 558. 
Crucifixion of Christ, 130. 

year of the, 211. 
Cyprus, 513. 
Cyrus, 291, 473. 

Damascus, description of, 497. 

Damaris, an Athenian woman con- 
verted by Paul, 554. 

Darius,vanquished by Alexander,474. 

Date of the foundation of the Roman 
church by Peter, 242. 

Deacons, appointment of, 175. 

Death, no evidence that any suffered, 
211. 
punishment of, not allowed by 
the Romans to the Jewish 
Sanhedrim, 209. 

Deeply wounded, 174. 

Demetrius, the artizan, who opposed 
Paul at Ephesus, 579. 

Denial of Peter's supremacy, 199. 



Deposited in trust, 167. 

Descent of the mount of Olives, 106. 

Devout man, fearing God with all his 
house, 191. 

Did the apostle John write the Apoc- 
alypse 1 344. 

Diana of the Ephesians, 577. 

Disciples of John the Baptist, 367, 
570. 

Disputes about the circumcision, 525. 

Dionysius the Areopagite, 554. 

Diopetos, statue of Diana of the Ephe- 
sians, said to have fallen from 
heaven, 578. 

Diospolis, name of Lydda, when re- 
built, 186. 

Dispensation of Jewish forms to Gen- 
tile converts, 252. 

Discussions with the sectaries, 
Christ's, 107. 

Domitius Nero, pupil of Seneca, 563. 

Dorcas, death of, 187. 

restored to life by Peter, 188. 

Domitian, emperor, persecution of 
the Christians under, 340. 
death of, by assassination, 363. 

Dydimus, Thomas, 404. 

Earthquake opens the prison at Phi- 

lippi, 541. 
Eaten of worms, Agrippa, 227. 
Egypt under the Romans, 22. 
Elymas the sorcerer, struck blind, 

514. 
Electricity of the cloven tongues of 

fire, 150. 
Ephesus, description of, 572. 

importance as an apostolic sta- 
tion, 332. 
Ephesian mob attack the Christians, 
577. 
dispersed by the magistrates, 
580. 
Ephesians, epistle to, 615. 

Diana of the, 577. 
Epistle of Paul to the Romans, 588. 
first to the Corinthians, 582. 
second to the Corinthians, 585. 
to the Galatians, 575. 
to the Ephesians, 615. 



INDEX. 



643 



Epistle to the Philippians, 617. 

to the Colossians, 616. 

first to the Thessalonians, 560. 

second to the Thessalonians, 
566. 

to Philemon, 617. 

to the Hebrews, 618. 
Epistle of James, 426. 

first of Peter, 263. 

second of Peter, 269. 

first of John, 370. 

second and third of John, 372. 

of Jude, 440. 
Erastus, helper of Paul at Corinth, 
577. 

accompanies Timothy to Mace- 
donia, 577. 
Essenes, sect of, 41. 
Eternal city, 355. 
Ethiopia, 401. 

Eutychus, killed by a fall, and restor- 
ed to life by Paul, 590. 
Euphrates, river, 258. 
Evil spirits cast out, 181. 

Fable of Adromeda, scene of the, 
188. 

Fair Haven, place where Paul stop- 
ped, 610. 

Fame of the apostles, 168. 

Famine predicted by Agabus, 511. 

Feast of the passover, 318, 457. 

Feast of the resurrection of Christ, 
325. 

Feet of Gamaliel, 489. 

Felix, Paul brought before, 603. 

Festus, governor of Palestine, 605. 
Paul accused before, 606. 
brings Paul before Agrippa, 606. 

Fig tree, blasting of, 106. 

shade of, a place of repose in 
summer, 382. 

Fire, tongues of, 150. 

First church, constitution of, 157. 

First trial of the Apostles, 163. 

First called Apostle, 288, 377. 

First martyr, 176. 

Flight of the Christians before the 
destruction of Jerusalem, 326. 

Forbearance, brotherly, 97. 
85 



Foreign Jews staying at Jerusalem, 
151. 

Foul spirits cast out by Philip, 181. 
From Jerusalem to Jericho, 118. 
Fulfilment of the prophecy of the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, 326. 

Galilee, 106. 

Galilean Apostles, 43, 466. 

their field of labor, 467. 
Galilean pugnacity, 118, 122. 

lies, 128. 
Gallio proconsul of Achaia, 652. 

brother of Seneca, 563. 

refuses to hear the accusation 
against Paul by the Jews of 
Corinth, 564. 
| Gamaliel, 172, 487. 
Gate of the temple, 159. 
Gates of Cilicia, 471. 474. 

of Syria, 470. 
Gaius and Aristarchus dragged into 
the theatre by the Ephesian. 
mob, 579. 
Gazelle, 187. 
Gennesaret, lake of, 52. 
Gethsemane, scenes of, 119, 123. 
Genuine Hebrews, 176. 
Glare of torches, 124. 
Gnostics, sect of, 364, 442, 619. 
Goats of Cilicia, 485. 
Gospel of Mathew, 388. 

Mark, 627. 

Luke, 631. 

John, 364. 
Greeks, 176. 
Great coat, Peter's, 138. 
Guards of the temple, 162. 

Healing the cripple, 159. 
Heathen, call to the, 189. 
Hebrew language, 389. 
Hebrews, epistle to, 618. 

genuine, 176. 
Hellenist Apostles, 18, 469. 

chosen deacons, 176. 
Hellenist Jews, 177. 
Hermon, mount, 87. 
Herod Antipas, 203. 
Herod Agrippa, 201, 205. 



644 



INDEX. 



Herod imprisoned by Tiberius, 203. 

created king by Caius Caesar, 
203. 

dies, eaten of worms, 225. 
Herod the Great, 35, 201. 

becomes king of Palestine, 36. 

murders his wife Mariamne, 201. 

causes his two sons to be stran- 
gled, 202. 
Herodians, sect of, 41. 
Holy bodies, 150. 

Holy Ghost, baptized with the, 145. 
Hosanna, 106. 

House to house, breaking bread from, 
158. 

Iconium, 520. 

Importance of Rome as a field of 

Apostolic labor, 234. 
In the temple and in private houses, 

175. 
India, 329. 

Increase of the church, 154. 
Iscariot, 446. 
Issus, 474. 
Italian cohort or legion, 190, 192. 

Jaffa, modern name of Joppa, 188. 
Jailer converted at Philippi, 541. 
JAMES BOANERGES, 298. 

rank and character, 298. 

family and call, 299. 

his ambitious claims, 301. 

his death, 306. 

Apostolic protomartyr, 306. 
JAMES THE LITTLE, 411, 413. 

his name, 411, 

brother of Jesus, 415. 

zealous for the preservation of 
Mosaic forms, 419. 

Apostleship, 421. 

Apostolic office, 424. 

bishop of Jerusalem, 425. 

epistle of, 426. 

death, 429. 

Josephus' testimony concerning, 
431. 
Jehoshaphat, valley of, 111. 
Jerusalem encompassed by the Ro- 
man armies, 326. 



Jerusalem, foreign Jews staying at, 

151. 
Jews, foreign, 151. 

once slaves at Rome, 179. 
JOHN, the son of Zebedee, 307. 
character of, 307. 
youngest of the disciples, 308. 
family and business, 309. 
education, 310. 
name, 311. 

call and discipleship, 312. 
partiality of Jesus for, 316. 
inquires who should betray him, 

318. 
procures admission for Peter to 

the trial of Christ, 319. 
Christ commends his mother to 

the care of, 319. 
goes to the sepulchre with Peter, 

320. 
pillar of the church, 322. 
results of traditions respecting, 

323. 
Judaical observances, 324. 
departure from Jerusalem, 326. 
journey eastward, 328. 
residence at Babylon, 330. 
residence in Asia, 330. 
residence at Ephesus, 334. 
traditional history, 337. 
thrown into a vessel of hot oil, 

338. 
banishment to Patmos, 339. 
the Apocalypse, 342. 
did he write the Apocalypse? 

344. 
with what design was it written ? 

348. 
what is its style ? 357. 
last residence at Ephesus, 363. 
his gospel, 364. 
where written, 369. 
his first epistle, 370. 
his second and third epistles, 372. 
tradition of his life in Ephesus, 

373. 
his death, 375. 
last of the Apostles, 376. 
John the Baptist, 288, 367. 
John Mark, see Mark. 



INDEX. 



645 



Joppa, 187, 188. 

Peter's visit to, 187. 

description of, 188. 
Joseph Barnabas, see Barnabas. 
Judas Barsabas, 439. 

the Gaulanite, 41. 

the Galilean, 173. 

not Iscariot, 437. 
JUDAS ISCARIOT, 445. 

character and name, 446. 

his expectations, 448. 

his discontent, 450. 

his defection, 452. 

objects to Mary's anointing 
Christ, 452. 

his dishonesty, 453. 

bargains to betray Christ, 456. 

pointed out as the traitor by Je- 
sus at supper, 457. 

betrays Christ in the garden, 459. 

returns the thirty pieces of silver, 
460. 

horrible death, 461. 
JUDE, his name, 437. 

brother of James and Jesus, 438. 

his epistle, 440. 

correspondence of his epistle with 
second epistle of Peter, 443. 
Juliopolis, 475. 
Jupiter, Barnabas taken for, 523. 

Laid aside his garment, 117. 

Lake Gennesaret, 52. 

Lambent flame, 150. 

Lamb of God, 290. 

Languages, gift of, 152. 

Last of the Apostles, 376. 

Last supper, 112. 

Lebbeus, a name of Jude, 437. 

Levi, a name of Matthew, 386. 

Lonely place, 68. 

Love feasts, 159. 

Ludd, present name of Lydda, 186. 

Lucius Junius Gallio, 562. 

LUKE, his name, 630. 

related to Paul, 630. 

Paul's historian, 631. 

accompanies Paul to Rome, 609. 

his gospel, 631. 

acts of the Apostles, 632. 



Luther, 361, 345. 
Lydda, 185. 
Lydia, 536. 
Lycaonia, 520. 
Lysias Claudius, 597. 

MARK, his name, 625. 
family and birth, 625. 
accompanies Paul and Barnabas 

to Antioch, 513, 625. 
suddenly leaves them, 625. 
occasions the dispute between 
Paul and Barnabas, 531, 626. 
Paul's assistant at Rome, 626. 
his gospel, 627. 
where written, 627. 
resemblance to Matthew's gos- 
pel, 628. 
Make thy bed for thyself, 187. 
Many teachers, 429. 
Manual labor instruction, 483. 
Marcus Antony, 474, 476. 
Mars Hill, 550. 
Mary, mother of James, 412. 
wife of Clopas, 413. 
anoints Christ, 445. 
MATTHEW, his name and rank, 
386. 
his call and occupation, 389. 
his gospel, 388. 
in what language was it written ? 

389. 
what were its materials ? 392. 
at what time was it written ? 394. 
with what design was it written 1 

398. 
his probable journeyings after 
leaving Jerusalem, 401. 
MATTHIAS, 464. 

elected to fill the place of Judas, 

464. 
traditions respecting him, 465. 
Mercury, 523. 

Messenger of God, 170, 174. 
Met the church and people, 169. 
Messiah, expectation of, 399. 
Method of securing Roman prisoners, 

217. 
Melita, Paul shipwrecked at, 612, 
Miletus, 592. 



646 



INDEX. 



Mitylene, 593. 

Mingling familiarly with them, 169. 

Mob at Ephesus, 577. 

Moses and Elijah appear to Christ on 

the mountain, 92. 
Mother of Jesus, 319, 383. 
Mother of Zebedee's children, 304. 
Mountains of Syria, 469. 
Mount Amanus, 469. 

Calvary, 131. 

Hermon, 87. 

of Olives, 106, 111. 

Paneas, 85. 

Tabor, 80. 

Taurus, 469. 
Mysteiy, 354. 
Mysterious name of Rome, 354. 

NATHANAEL BARTHOLO- 
MEW, name and call, 381. 
introduction to Jesus, 382. 
at the Cana wedding, 383. 
probable occupation, 383. 
his Apostleship, 384. 
preaches in Arabia, 384. 
traditions of his death, 385. 
Name of Christian denoting criminal, 

267. 
Nazareth, 106. 
Nero's persecution, 266. 

a pupil of Seneca, 563. 
Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, 

176. 
Nicolaitans, 369, 442. 
Noble race of Patricians, 191. 
No evidence that any suffered death, 

211. 
No evidence that Peter ever visited 

Asia Minor, 264. 
Not seeing but believing, 407. 
Nubia, conquest of, 22. 

Objections to the traditionary history 

of Peter, 247. 
Olives, mount of, 111. 
On duty about him, 197. 
Opening the prison doors, 170. 

Palestine in the Apostolic age, 33, 190. 
religious condition of, 36. 



Palm branches, 105. 

Palsy, healed at Lydda, 185. 

Paneas, mount of, 85. 

Paphian Venus, 513. 

Paphos, 513. 

Parmenas, 176. 

Parthia, 329. 

Passover, feast of, 318, 456. 

Patmos, 341. 

Patricians, noble race of, 191. 

PAUL, 469. 

his country, 469. 

a Roman citizen, 476. 

his Grecian learning, 479. 

family and birth, 480. 

of the tribe of Benjamin, 480. 

his trade, 482. 

early education, 486. 

removal to Jerusalem, 487. 

his teacher, 487. 

his Jewish opinions, 489. 

a Pharisee, 491. 

his persecuting character, 492. 

assists at the murder of Stephen, 
180. 

persecutes the Christians, 180. 

journey to Damascus, 495. 

his vision, 498. 

his stay at Damascus, 501. 

sight restored by Ananias, 502. 

preaches at Damascus, 503. 

attempt to kill him, 504. 

escapes by being let down from 
the wall in a basket, 504. 

residence in Arabia, 505. 

return to Jerusalem, 506. 

rejected by the Apostles, 184, 
506. 

visit to Tarsus, 508. 

Apostolic labors in Antioch, 
508. 

and Barnabas set apart for a 
mission to the Gentiles, 512. 

first Apostolic mission, 512. 

preaches at Cyprus and Paphos, 
513. 

preaches before the Roman Pro- 
consul, 514. 

strikes Elymas blind, 514. 

his change of name, 515. 



INDEX. 



647 



Paul, his journey in south eastern 

Asia Minor, 517. 
preaches in the synagogue at 

Antioch, 518. 
preaches at Iconium, 520. 
heals a lame man at Lystra, 522. 
and Barnabas taken for gods, 522. 
is stoned at Lystra, 523. 
returns to Jerusalem about the 

question of circumcision, 526. 
and Barnabas, with Jude and Si- 
las, return to Antioch, 527. 
violent and hasty feelings, 529. 
reproof of Peter, 253. 
contention with Peter, 528. 
contention with Barnabas, 530. 
second Apostolic mission, 533. 
converts Timothy, 533. 
his westward journey, 534. 
the Macedonian vision, 535. 
mission to Macedonia, 536. 
residence at Philippi, 536. 
restores reason to the girl at 

Philippi, 539. 
and Silas imprisoned at Philippi, 

539. 
prison opened by an earthquake, 

541. 
preaches at Thessalonica, 543. 
mobbed at Thessalonica, 545. 
preaches at Beroea, 546. 
his visit to Athens, 547. 
disputes with philosophers, 548. 
preaches to the Athenians, 551. 
converts Dionysius the Areopa- 

gite, 554. 
visit to Corinth, 554. 
meets Aquilas, 556. 
labors for a support, 557. 
his epistles written from Corinth, 

558. 
first epistle to the Thess., 560. 
accusation before the proconsul, 

562. 
second epistle to the Thess. 566. 
his voyage back to the east, 567. 
first residence at Ephesus, 568. 
visit to Jerusalem and Syria, 569. 
second residence in Ephesus, 

570. 



Paul, baptizes the disciples of John the 
Baptist at Ephesus, 570. 

conjurors and magicians con- 
verted, 574. 

epistle to the Galatians, 575. 

the Ephesian mob, 577. 

first epistle to Corinthians, 582. 

second voyage to Europe, 584. 

second epistle to Corinthians,585^ 

second journey to Corinth, 587. 

epistle to the Romans, 588. 

return to Asia, 589. 

preaches at Troas, 590. 

restores to life Eutychus, 590. 

stops at Assos, 591. 

stops at Miletus, 591. 

last visit to Jerusalem, 595. 

seized by the mob in the temple, 
596. 

is carried to the castle, 597. 

preaches to the multitude, 598. 

taken before the Sanhedrim, 600. 

is strengthened by a vision, 602. 

forty Jews make an oath to kill 
him, 602. 

sent to Caesarea by Lysias, 603. 

presented to Felix, 603. 

accused by Ananias before Fe- 
lix, 603. 

hearing before Festus, 605. 

appeals to Caesar, 606. 

hearing before Agrippa, 606. 

voyage to Rome, 609. 

is shipwrecked at Melita, 611. 

escapes the bite of a viper, 612. 

performs miraculous cures, 612. 

arrives at Rome, 613. 

preaches to the Jews, 614. 

epistles written from Rome, 614. 

epistle to the Ephesians, 615. 
Colossians, 616. 
Philemon, 617. 
Philippians, 617. 
Hebrews, 618. 

voyage to the east, 619. 

return to Rome, 620. 

his death, 621. 
Peaceful progress of the gospel, 205. 
Pella, refuge of the Christians, 327. 
Pentecost, feast of, 146. 



648 



INDEX. 



Persecution of the Christians under 
Domitian, 340. 

at Jerusalem, 179. 
Peter, see Simon Peter, 
Peter's shadow, 169. 
Petronius, 207. 
Pharisees, sect of, 38. 

averse to bloodshed, 172. 
Philemon, epistle to, 617. 
PHILIP, his call, 377. 

chosen deacon, 176. 

preaches in Samaria, 181. 

casts out evil spirits, 181. 

his Apostleship, 378. 

his daughters, 379. 

his death, 380. 
Philip, son of Herod, 83. 
Philippi, 537. 

Philippians, epistle to, 617. 
Prophecy of the temple's ruin, 108. 

destruction of Jerusalem, 397. 

of a famine, 511. 

of Paul's imprisonment, 594. 
Pillars of the church, 322. 
Piece of money, 96. 
Plain of Sharon, 186. 
Pompey, 474. 

Porch of Solomon, 161, 169. 
Pope's supremacy, 169. 
Preaching Jesus Christ, 174. 
Prison, Jewish, description of, 494. 
Priscilla, wife of Aquilas, 556, 567. 
Proconsul, 514. 
Protoclete, 377. 
Protomartyr, 306. 
Prochorus, 176. 
Ptolemy, 481. 
Publius Petronius, 207. 
Pythoness, priestess of Apollo, 538. 

Question of superiority among the 

disciples, 96. 
Quaternion, 220. 
Quarrel of Paul and Peter, 528. 

of Paul and Barnabas, on account 

of Mark, 530. 
Question of Peter's martyrdom, 274, 

276. of his supremacy, 199. 

Rabbi Akiba, head of the Jewish Col- 
lege at Lydda, 186. 



Rabban Gamaliel, 186. 
Raised a voice, 167. 
Resurrection of Christ, 172. 
Rhodes, 595. 

Roads, ancient and modern, 24. 
Robbers of temples, 581. 
Rome, extent of, 20. 

three names of, 355. 

Apostle Peter at, 232. 

Apostle Paul at, 613. 

banishment of Jews from, 244. 

the great mystical Babylon, 241, 
355. 
Roman citizens, 476. 

roads, 24. 

conquest, 20. 

tolerance, 207. 

triumphs, 30. 
Royal colonnade, 161. 
Rule of brotherly forbearance, 97. 

Sabians, disciples of John Baptist, 367. 
Sadducees, 40, 170. 
Salvation, or healing, 165. 
Salome, wife of Zebedee, 304. 
Samaria, 181. 
Samaritans, 181, 183. 
Samos, 593. 
Sanhedrim, 170, 454. 

not allowed to pass sentence of 
death, 209. 
Sandan, founder of Tarsus, 473. 
Sardanapalus, 474. 
Sapphira and Ananias, 167. 

death of, 168. 
Saul, see Paul. 
Scenes on the Lake, 67. 
Sceva, seven sons of, conjurors, 573. 

attempts to cast out devils in the 
name of Jesus, 573. 

are beaten and wounded by the 
possessed, 574. 
Scythia, 291. 

Seized with a pain in the bowels, 227. 
Seizure of the Apostles, 162, 170. 
Seleucia, 514. 
Seneca banished from Rome, 563. 

recalled and made senator, 563. 
Sepulchre in vale of crucifixion, 133. 

of Christ, 133. 



INDEX. 



649 



Sergius Paulus, 513. 

Sermon on the mount, 64. 

Seven times, 99. 

Sharon, plain of, 186. 

Sick in the streets, 169. 

Siege of Jerusalem, by the Romans, 

326. 
Sift you as wheat, 118. 
Silas, imprisoned with Paul at Philip- 
pi, 539. 
Silver shrines, 581. 

attends Paul on his mission, 536. 
SIMON PETER, 43. 

called Cephas, 43. 

his Apostolic rank, 43. 

his age, 44. his birth, 47. 

his introduction to Jesus, 54. 

discipleship, 57. his call, 59. 

his first mission, 65. 

walking on the water, 67. 

his declaration of Christ's di- 
vinity, 69. 

his ambitious hopes and their hu- 
miliation, 75. 

proposes to make three taberna- 
cles, 92. 

cuts off the ear of the High 
Priest's servant, 122. 

attends the trial of Christ, 124. 

denies Christ, 125. 

Christ's charge to, 137. 

curiosity about the fate of John 
checked, 141,321. 

Apostleship, 146. 

sermon, after gift of tongues,153. 

head of the church, 156, 169. 

superiority, 45, 147, 153, 156. 

prominence, 156. 

heals the palsy at Lydda, 186. 

surveys the churches, 185. 

visits Joppa, 187. Lydda, 187. 

raises Dorcas from death, 188. 

vision on the house-top, 194. 

visits Cornelius at Caesarea, 195. 

denial of his supremacy, 199. 

threatened martyrdom under 
Herod Agrippa, 219. 

deliverance, 220. 

chains preserved at Rome, 224. 

place of refuge from Agrippa,228. 



Simon Peter, supposed tour through 
Asia Minor, 231. 

first supposed visit to Rome, 232. 

conflict with Simon Magus, 234. 

preaching at Rome, 240. 

chair at Rome, 242. 

bishop of Rome, 245. 

testimony of the early fathers 
respecting, 245. 

objections to the traditionary his- 
tory of, 247. 

visit to Antioch, 253. 
date of, 256. 

Romish fable of, 255. 

reproved by Paul, 253. 

his return eastward, 256. 

his residence in Babylon, 258. 

first epistle, 263. its date, 269. 

second epistle, 269. 

its doubtful authenticity, 270. 

its date, 272. his death, 273. 

question of his martyrdom,274-6, 

Christ's prophecy of what death 
he should die, 274. 

second supposed to visit Rome, 
278. his tomb, 279. 

vision of his rising, 281. 

progress of his spiritual develop- 
ment, 284. his fame, 286. 

his name Simeon, 420. 
Simon Cephas, 43. 
Simon Magus, 235. 
Simon the magician, 181. 

offers to buy the gift of the 
Holy Ghost, 183. 
Simon the tanner, 188. 
SIMON ZELOTES, name, 434. 

his history, 435. 

traditions of his labors, &c. 436. 
Solomon, porch of, 161, 169. 
SonsofZebedee, 298. 

of Thunder, 298, 307. 
Son of Man, 71. 

of exhortation, 167. 

of Alpheus, 411. 
Sosthenes, ruling elder of the syna- 
gogue at Corinth, 564. 

beaten before the tribunal of 
Gallio, 564. 
Stephen elected deacon, 176. 






650 



INDEX. 









wrought miracles, 177. 

trial before the Sanhedrim, 178. 

martyred, 179, 210. 
Story of Atticus and Eugenius, 374. 
St. Thomas' Christians, 408. 
St. Bernard's sermons, 295. 
Success of the Roman armies, 234. 
Superiority, question of, among the 

disciples, 96. 
Supremacy of the Pope, 169. 
Supper, the last, 112. 
Survey of the churches, 185. 
Syriac version, 272. 

Tabitha, 187. 

Tabor, mount, 141. 

Tax gatherer, 387. 

Tarry till I come, 321. 

Tarsus, 472, 474, 478. 

Temple, prophecy of the ruin of, 108. 

view of the, 110. 

beautiful gate of the, 159. 
Ten o'clock, 123. 
Tent maker, 483. 
Thaddeus, 437. 
Thessalonica, 543, 545. 
Theudas the impostor, 173. 
Thales, 477. 

Three names of Rome, 355. 
Things in common, 157. 
Thirty pieces of silver, 456. 
THOMAS DIDYMUS, 404. 

uncertainty of his history, 404. 

his incredulity, 406. 

tests the truth of Christ's resur- 
rection, 407. 

probable visit to India, 408. 

evidence of the fathers, 409. 
Timothy converted by Paul, 533. 

bishop of Ephesus, 331. 
Timon, 176. 

To the unknown God, 551. 
Tophet, valley of, 111. 
Tongues of fire, explanation of, 150. 
Torches, 124. 

Trades taught all Jewish children,483. 
Transfiguration of Christ, 79. 
Trial of the Apostles 163. 

of Stephen, 177. 
Tripolemus, 473. 
Trogyllium, 593. 



Tribute money, 95. 
Tyrannus, Paul preached at the 
house of, in Corinth, 572. 

Upper room, 149. 
Unknown God, 551. 

Vale of Calvary, 131. 

of the crucifixion, 133. 
Valley of Jehoshaphat, 111. 

of Tophet, 111. 
Vespasian, 327. 
Very religious, 552. 
View of the temple, 110. 
Virgin Mary's visit to Ephesus with 

John, 336. 
Visit to Samaria, 182. 
Vision of animals let down in a sheet 

to Peter, 194. 
Washing his disciples feet, 113. 
Wedding at Cana, 308, 312, 383. 
Were all assembled, 151. 
Were in the highest favor, &c. 167. 
Where prayer was wont to be made ? 

537. 
Whipping in the synagogue, 494. 
Who do men say that I am ? 70. 
Words of this life, 174. 

Xenophon, 473. 

Year of the crucifixion, 211. 
Youngest of the Apostles, 308. 

Zebedee, 299. sons of, 298. 
Zachariah, son of Jehoiada, 395. 

son of Barachiah, 394. 

slain between the temple and 
the altar, 395. 

death of, fulfils the prophecy of the 

abomination of desolation, 395. 
Zelotes, Simon, 434. 

not of the sect of Zealots, 434. 
Zealots, sect of, 395. 

tyrannize over Jerusalem, 394. 

fulfil the prophecy of Christ, 395. 

murder Zachariah, &c. 395. 

profane the temple by the intro- 
duction of heathen, 397. 

character of, 434. 

did not arise till after the death 







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